An ex-Mercer University art teacher has been banned from a Middle Georgia restaurant after she was seen in a viral video appearing to slap a pregnant service member from metro Atlanta.
Judy Tucker, 71, was arrested on a battery charge following Saturday’s confrontation with Treasure Sharpe at Cheddar’s Scratch Kitchen in Macon, the Bibb County Sheriff’s Office said. Witness LaKeycia Ward recorded the incident on her cellphone and uploaded the footage on YouTube. The video has been viewed more than 400,000 times so far.
According to a sheriff’s incident report obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, deputies were called to the Cheddar’s in the 4000 block of Riverside Drive just before 8:25 p.m.
When they arrived, a woman identified as Stephanie Mitchell told deputies she and Sharpe were backing into a parking space at the restaurant when Tucker’s adult son told them to learn how to park and called them “dumb (expletives).”
Sharpe, 27, of Powder Springs, responded by telling the man to “shut the (expletive) up,” according to the report.
The two women, dressed in fatigues, walked inside the restaurant and the son approached them again, authorities said. He called them “black lesbian (expletives),” according to the incident report.
Mitchell, 34, of Palmetto, asked the man to stop cursing and calling them names and Sharpe started recording the exchange, according to the report.
Tucker, her son and her daughter lunged at the women multiple times in an effort to stop Sharpe from recording, according to the report.
Ultimately, authorities determined Tucker “was at fault and the primary aggressor,” according to the report.
The Macon woman was arrested and released on $650 bond. Her son and her daughter have not been charged in connection with the incident. The son was identified by the AP as Robbie Tucker. The daughter’s name was not released.
Cheddar’s condemned the behavior of “the individuals who confronted the two female service members” in a statement to The AJC.
The incident “flies in the face of our values and those individuals are no longer welcome in our restaurant,” the company said.
Mercer issued a statement of its own about Tucker, who was “never continuously employed at Mercer” and last taught at the university as an adjunct instructor in 2017.
“Judy Tucker is not currently employed at Mercer University,” the school said. “She has occasionally taught an art class in the past, but will not be teaching at Mercer in the future.”
The investigation is ongoing, according to the Bibb sheriff’s office.
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