The woman accused of punching an off-duty Atlanta police officer at a Buckhead IHOP now faces felony charges, authorities have confirmed.
Ashley Leavell, is now charged with felony obstruction as well as public drunkeness and simple battery. Leavell was part of a scuffle at the IHOP around 4 a.m. April 23.
A police spokesman said the investigating officer submitted a video of the incident in his supplemental report, which in his opinion "clearly showed" felony obstruction.
The incident was captured on video.
If convicted, she could face at least a year in prison with that felony charge.
How the incident started is unclear. An arrest report released Thursday by the APD tells a starkly different tale than the one told by two of the women in an interview with the AJC. The report includes information that one of the women was yelling at patrons sitting in another booth and then later started throwing punches at the off-duty police officer, who was trying to get her to leave.
Besides Leavell, three other women -- Cynthia Freeman, Vanessa Chancey and Roberta Caban – also were arrested. Freeman and Caban met with the AJC and Channel 2 Action News in the law offices of Atlanta attorney Bobby Aniekwu Wednesday.
In that interview, Freeman told the AJC she didn’t notice the police officer when they walked into the IHOP at 4 a.m. Saturday but instead was focused on two men dressed as characters from the Star Wars trilogy. That’s when a man in a blue shirt came over to their table and told her to shut up. The incident escalated from there, Freeman said, with the officer pulling out some of her hair and then punching Leavell.
Atlanta Police Officer Jose Vidal’s arrest report said he saw three women -- later identified as Freeman, Chancey and Caban -- sit in a booth directly behind him.
"I heard Freeman yelling at another booth," Vidal wrote in the report. According to the report, Vidal told Freeman not to talk so loud and said she would have to leave if she continued to do so.
Freeman and Caban told the officer "they weren't doing anything," the report said.
According to Vidal's report, when he told the women they needed to leave, "Freeman replied ‘I ain't going anywhere,' and she was going to call the real police."
In Vidal's report, he said he told Freeman he was the real police and placed her under arrest.
Vidal used his police radio to call for additional officers, and Freeman "started throwing punches at my body to stop me from arresting her," the report said. At that point, Ashley Leavell, who was sitting at another table came over to the booth and told Vidal to leave Freeman alone, the report said.
"Ms. Leavell punched me in the left side of my face, I returned the punch and struck her in her face," the report said. Vidal also wrote in the report that Leavell used vulgar language and had a strong odor of alcohol on her breath.
Freeman told the AJC she had never met Leavell before the incident and added that she had been dining at another table.
“She was trying to get the officer to back off,” Freeman said.
Her friend, Roberta Caban, said the officer never identified himself before the incident.
It is not yet known if the women will sue.
“As I sit here today, there's a great likelihood we will start some litigation,” Aniekwu, the attorney, said Wednesday.
Freeman told the AJC she and her friends were seated at the first table near the front door of the IHOP. She was speaking to her friends about two nearby restaurant patrons who were dressed like characters -- Boba Fett and a Storm Trooper -- from the Star Wars films before the off-duty APD officer approached.
“He just attacked me,” Freeman said, “And I said, ‘What did I do? What did I do? I didn’t do anything.”
“I’m sitting with my friends, and I’m talking to the Darth Vader guys, just on a casual conversation ... and then he just out of nowhere came to me, out of all of the people, came to me,” she said later.
“I didn’t touch this man, never, not once,” she said. “I didn’t pay him any attention what he had on. I was just looking at his face because he was yelling.”
Freeman was charged with criminal trespass, obstruction and simple battery.
According to several videos posted on YouTube.com, the officer shouted at a woman sitting in the corner of a booth near the door and then he lunged at her. A woman wearing a black dress appeared to be trying to separate the officer and her friend when the officer slapped her. The woman in the black dress hit him back, and he punched her in the face.
A second officer came up just as the struggle began. He got involved when it became physical between the first cop and the woman in the black dress, apparently trying to separate them. The first officer pulled the woman away from the table, threw her onto the floor and laid on top of her while trying to get handcuffs on one wrist. The second wrist was cuffed when she turned over on her stomach.
Within moments, a female officer appeared to hold back the crowd while the woman in the black dress, shoeless, was led out of the restaurant.
The officer involved in the incident has been placed on administrative duty pending the outcome of an investigation, an Atlanta police spokesman said.
“The officer involved in the arrest and confrontation with a patron at the IHOP in Buckhead has been placed on administrative duty pending the outcome of an investigation by the department’s Office of Professional Standards. Use of force by police officers is a matter the department takes seriously, and the OPS investigation will determine if the officer acted within established guidelines. Chief Turner has pledged to have the OPS investigation concluded in 10 business days.”
--Staff reporters Rhonda Cook and Larry Hartstein contributed to this article.
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