An Atlanta cop walks into the International House of Pancakes in Buckhead, and … well, you know how it ends, right?
This is the one where the woman gets punched by the off-duty cop after video recording him arresting two other women while working as a security guard.
New punch line: That lady is suing the officer and the IHOP.
Ashley Leavell was decked out in her little black dress and heels on the early morning of April 23, 2011 when she said she saw Atlanta Police Officer Jose A. Vidal pushing two women into a booth at the eatery.
Moments later, video that would eventually go viral on the web showed Leavell, then 26, staggered from a blow to the head that Vidal delivered.
“It’s not right, it’s not legal and it’s certainly not gentlemanly,” Leavell’s attorney, Craig Jones, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “She didn’t pose a significant threat to anybody.”
Last week, Leavell filed a lawsuit in Fulton County court claiming Vidal used excessive force, and holding Southern Restaurant Management, Inc., the company that owned the now-shuttered Buckhead IHOP, responsible for hiring Vidal as off-duty police security.
“There are a million things (as an officer) you could’ve done,” Jones said. “But you certainly shouldn’t strike a head blow. If he’d hit her … the wrong way, she could’ve been dead.”
Southern Restaurant Management officials could not be reached for comment.
The Atlanta Police Department’s office of professional standards cleared Vidal of any wrongdoing, saying he used a reasonable amount of force, given the circumstances.
Police officials declined to comment on the lawsuit.
In his incident report, Vidal said he told two women they had to leave the restaurant for violating IHOP’s noise policy.
The videos customers recorded showed Vidal forcing the women against a wall inside one of the restaurant booths when Leavall approached him.
Leavall touched Vidal, Vidal slapped her and Leavall swung back several times, the video appears to show.
“Swinging back was just instinctive,” Jones said.
The police internal affairs report from the incident said Leavell immediately attempted to strike the officer three times with a closed fist. The officer then delivered a closed fist strike to the face of Leavell.
Jones said his client suffered a concussion.
Leavell was charged with obstruction, public drunkenness and simple battery, and released the following day on $2,500 bond.
But Jones complained that, although the arrest may have been legitimate, it was unnecessary, given the circumstances.
“Only Barney Fife (the milquetoast sheriff’s deputy from the ‘60’s sitcom, ‘The Andy Griffith Show’), would have arrested her,” he said.
He also noted that no action has ever been taken to actually prosecute those charges.
“If they thought that this was a good case, they would’ve taken this to court a long time ago,” Jones said.
Vidal remains on active duty as an Atlanta officer. But Jones thinks he shouldn’t have struck Leavell at all … regardless of the situation.
“If you’re a 200-pound man, whether you’re an officer or not, you don’t punch a lady,” Jones said.
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