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Ellis, a 24-year-old Louisiana schoolteacher, is accused of four charges, two of assault to an officer of the law, one resisting arrest, and one peace disturbance, in connection with an incident that occurred at Walmart on Jan. 6, 2007.
Betsy Walls, the store cashier involved with the incident, was first to testify on behalf of the state, represented by Cape Girardeau County Prosecuting Attorney Morley Swingle. Walls noted in her testimony that Ellis arrived on the scene pushing another customer's items back on the conveyer belt to make room for her own items ahead of the customer's.
Walls also noted that she attempted to continue doing her job of running the cashier while waiting for management and security to handle Ellis, who reportedly became "belligerent," and "out of control."
In response to Walls' statement, defense attorney Scott Rosenblum asked if at any point the cashier tried to resolve the issue by asking others what had occurred, to which Walls replied, "No."
The second testimony of the day came from another Walmart employee, assistant manager Kay McDaniel.
McDaniel explained in her testimony that when she arrived on the scene Ellis was upset. She noted that she asked Ellis to move to the back of the line, or to exit the store. The defense asked McDaniel if she at any time tried to correct the problems or listen to Ellis' side of the story, to which McDaniel replied, "No."
Others providing testimonies during the day included Walmart employees Loretta Cunningham, Linda Maddox, Robin Flood, former Kennett police officer Al Fisher, Sgt. Joe Stewart of the Kennett Police Department, officer Phillip Caldwell of the Kennett Police Department, officer Alan Campbell of the Kennett Police Department, Cpl. Craig Moody of the Kennett Police Department, witness Brandon Elliott and witness Ashley Elliott.
The defense worked to disprove credibility of the witnesses by asking each witness to inform the jury that they had met as a group several times with Dunklin County Prosecuting Attorney Stephen Sokoloff.
Also during the trial, the jury was able to review a surveillance tape provided by Walmart that the prosecution noted clearly shows Ellis pushing another customer's merchandise back.
The trial was set to resume at 9 a.m. today at the Dunklin County Courthouse.
Surveillance video from the night of the incident
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Ellis is accused of cutting in line at the Walmart in January 2007, then becoming belligerent and refusing to leave after store managers asked her to go.
WRONG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! she is being prosecuted for criminally assaulting an officer.........
i watch the video didn't see where she assaulted the officer yeah she guilty of cutting in line but the rest don't know about that
You have four or five police officers testifying that she assaulted two of them. Is that not enough in this day and age? If she is lying about creating a peace distubance---which clearly is shown on the video, one must assume that she is lying about not having assaulted the police officers and about them beating her. A child learns to stand in line and wait their turn in kindergarten---this woman was in college. It will be intersting to see what the verdict is today.
We did not get called for jury duty on this one. The trial is not over. This is not the peoples court. How about we wait for the outcome before we second guess anyone. Stupidity is not a crime, assault however is. Let the Jury decide. Then you can hash & rehash all you want.
I'm sure if you ask the President what he thinks, he'll probably state that the police acted stupidly.
TheArmySarge, They did. Complete waste of taxpayer dollars.
Mutt,
We could do that, but this is why there is a comments section.
Now from what I can tell, this is a clear and cut case. The tape shows the peace disturbance and yes she created one. I do not see her cousin in front of her. In front of her is some white lady whose stuff gets pushed back by Ellis while she is in the middle of checking out. She continues to do this the entire time she is checking out and for what, two items.
The video also shows at the end the end of the assault. We do not get to see it happen, but we get to see how quick they react and pull her back to the car, where you can clearly see one of her friends trying to get involved.
This is a clear cut case of someone getting caught red handed and then yelling racism to try and get off with nothing. Just look at what has happened since. It took 3 years to go to trial because of everything they were saying. They had to get a new prosecutor because the old one resigned after Ellis' family was threatening his life. Just the other day I say this brought up on a news show on HLN and a man on the panel who is friends with the Ellis family tried to paint Morley Swingle as racist because he has a confederate flag on the cover of his novel. No mention as to the fact the novel was a work of fiction, which means it was a mad up story, and was about a guy in Cape finding Confederate gold. I am going to laugh when she gets convicted and everyone gets to see the truth behind her and her families lies.
Let's look at the facts, and leave the color of people's skin out of it!
This lady had black lady syndrome. Everyone has ran into this and knows what I am talking about. They think that they can do what ever they want and get away with it because of the color of their skin. They can talk the way that they want, say what they want, have no respect for anybody, and act out any action that they want. Then yell racism to make you feel guilty for being white.
Everyone involved needs to take some conflict resolution training. Overreactions across the board. The antagonist will get a "time out" for a couple of months, but what about the rest?
It may not have helped if the cashier smiled and politely stated, "excuse me, she was here first," but it would not have hurt. It could have prevented the situation from escalating, as well as a more professional reaction from the manager and the police.
These steps would not have stopped the initial action, but it could have a shown a clear contrast between grownup behavior and that of a child, and would have discredited the charges of rasism.
On that last note, can we believe that the employees and police would have acted the same if the woman was white? If that was the case, how many posts would come to her defense as someone just having a bad day?
How billegerant of a person would you have to be to push someone else' items out of the way to put yours in their place?
Where are the other 2 camera angles mentioned in the story yesterday? The Walmart employee who retrieved the surveilance video said he found 5 camera angles of the altercation, only counted 3 in that video.
Also note her claim that she was slammed onto the car doesn't appear to be supported. Yes she was made to assume the position face down on the trunk of the patrol car, but i do not see any overuse of force at all. 2 officers follow her just off frame once they are outside, and you can see the other three officers trailing immediately run to assist, mostly to keep the others with Ms. Ellis away from the officers doing their job.
Her story is quickly crashing down. . .
Noting:
~this was the tobacco express lane
~other customer had over 10 items, why wasn't that customer confronted? sent to another lane? or the police called on her/him?
just saying...
Interesting how everyone is watching the same video, but each have a different perception. I think the video will help the defense.
Pivotal, I've had way more than the number of items for an express lane & had the cashier wave me over & say its fine.
What I've never had is someone push my items back so they could cut in front of me?
As someone stated she is not being prosecuted for "cutting in line " but for assulting an officer of the law.
Also agree race should be left out of this , her actions depict the type of person she is ,sad she is a teacher (these values will be seen by her students )............my opinion...
guess it is more pc for a walmart employee to confront a black woman cutting in line than a white person with double the number of items in an express lane. white person appears to be manhandling too
You don't cut in line. Obfuscation and race baiting notwithstanding...
rockman, The line cutting confrontation was the catalyst that started this waste of tax money. If this cashier waved on a customer with more than 10 items in an express lane with others waiting, why not continue the kindness and checkout the customer with 2 items first, rather than escalate to a confrontation.
I'm beginning to believe this indeed was racially motivated. Not that line cutting is acceptable, but she was not the only one at fault here. jmo
The claim of race being a factor came from the
defendant and henceforh was deemed open to debate.
By taking that bait, the prosecution has given the
defense's strategy of racism merrit. A reasonable
judge would have dismissed this case. Denial of
the publicity would be more motive to deter that behavior than rewarding her type the chance to make her point that Kennett is racist in it's justice.
Congratulations to the City of Kennett. You made the CNN News last night.
....and so it goes~
Pivotal, What is a person to do when they want to purchase cigarettes but have more than 10 items? We use those lanes anyway. Cigarettes are not available in other lanes.
Pivotal, she could have asked to go ahead with her two items. She didn't, she forced her way into line. Not what someone does that wants to get along. If I forced my way in front of someone else, I would expect to hear complaints and not get waited on.
When should race-based preferential line advancement end in your world?
Ho humm. Typical behavior that almost every person witnesses daily. The only difference is that these people stood up for themselves. I wish the customer behind her would have beat the brakes off her.
Turnip, 10 item limit is a posted rule which should be enforced. Funny, how line cutting is not a posted rule yet was enforced. just saying...
Oh, I pay for my cigs in the cig line and go to different line for the rest of the items, if over 10.
Bobby, were you there? We don't know if she asked to go ahead or not.
Pivotal almost makes a good point except this was late at night and the express tobacco lane is only restricted for the hours leading up to about 8 pm. I know, i have been in that exact checkout lane many times at night. So go find another excuse to defend this criminal. This one does not hold water. And even if others had more than 10 items she still jumped in front of them, pushed them, cursed them, refused to leave when she was told she was trespassing and then assaulted police officers. Good role model for the children in her charge.
"Funny, how line cutting is not a posted rule yet was enforced. just saying..."
This is funny, I hope intentionally. There is not a posted rule that she can't urninate in line, either...
Folks, 10 items is not a law - its a request of the store. That being said, I don't see how that matters in this case. Ellis actions are on trial, not the person if front or behind her.
suelynn, Neither is cutting in line. The reason it matters, the clerks actions/reaction to Ellis's actions are what started this whole mess.
You can tell the clerk was obstinate even without words, as was the white person with more than 10 items.
All I'm saying, there is a chance this was indeed racial charged from the very beginning.
Someone jumps in front of me in line and I am going to be obstinate, too.
"Hey, what are you doing?" will be the opening salvo. How far it escalates will be up to them...
Okay, a couple of you need to be educated in the ways of Wal-Mart and as a former employee, I will gladly help you.
1) Employees cannot make any confrontations whatsoever with a customer. Why? Because Wal-Mart wants the polished and perfect appearance. We do not argue, if they say something's a certain price (within reason....not talking 2 bucks for a computer or something like that) then we give it to them for that price. What we were instructed to do as cashiers is if anything of this sort happens, we do a 248 action code which calls a CSS or (Customer Service Supervisor) so they can get someone from management over. There is also an action code for Customer Emergency (216?). A CSS technically can't do anything either. All of the confrontations and customer problems are to be handled directly by management, no ifs ands or buts.
2) The 10 items or less I worked the most. Yes, it's posted, but if other lines are backed up, or if they need cigarettes, we are instructed to move them along as quickly as possible. That's the goal of the store. Get customers in and out quickly while maintaining good customer service. A sign saying 10 or less doesn't mean jack, just like 20 or less doesn't mean jack either. If people come down the line with 40, guess what? I couldn't say anything. My job was to be polite professional, nonconfrontational and get them checked out quickly.
I was miserable working for Wal-Mart because you had people like this who came through. I got called every name in the book if a coupon didn't go through or I put bread in the bag by itself so it wouldn't get smashed, or if something wasn't to their liking. I feel sorry for the employee and management because this happens at every Wal-Mart store in the country on a daily basis. The only nice people I had coming down my lines were people who worked in the similar type of profession. They knew how it felt to work behind a register and catch hell all day from both management and customer alike. And guess what? I got called every name in the book, but I couldn't say anything back. Couldn't argue, couldn't defend myself, all for the sake of customer service.
So I highly suggest that you don't hold any blame to the people that work at Wal-Mart. I never had any complaint with any of my co-workers. They were fine people who did their jobs well, but not well enough to satisfy the customer.
As for the race card, yeah, she definitely played it, and I've seen plenty in the store up here that do that as well. It is not a rarity.
Notice that the national news channels, Fox, CNN, etc. dropped it like a hot potato when the testimony began, and the video became public.
For every action, there is a reaction. Every choice has some kind of consequence, good or bad. Does not matter who she is, where she's from, or what day of the week it was...she made a poor choice for orange juice and cookies. Hope she can look back and reflect on this.
For those that say the cig line is an express lane may be wrong..........Where I live the cig line is just like any other line............As well the lady in front of Ellis didn't look like she had more than 10 items anyway.
What Ellis did was wrong....she should have stayed in the lane that she was in. If she wanted to check out faster she should have stayed with he cousin/brother/whatever.
She was not a lady by any stretch of the imagination.
Looks like Morley wussed out on this one!!!!! Four days in jail... You would get more time in Cape County with a DWI arrest!!!!!! Looks like Morley gave into the NAACP and the ACLU!!!!! What a LOSER!!!