Arrest at Walmart Leads to Charges of Racism
The South Will Rise Again
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ST. LOUIS � Nearly three years after Heather Ellis switched checkout
lines at a southeast Missouri store and touched off what she calls a
racially charged dispute with white customers and authorities, the young
black schoolteacher faces a trial that could send her to prison for 15
years.
Witnesses have told authorities that Ellis cut in front of waiting
customers at the Walmart in Kennett on Jan. 6, 2007, shoved merchandise
already placed on a conveyor belt out of the way, and became belligerent
when confronted, according to court filings.
Ellis maintains she was merely joining her cousin, whose checkout line was
moving more quickly. She claimed in a written complaint to the National
Association for the Advancement of Colored People that she was then pushed
by a white customer, hassled by store employees, called racial slurs and
physically mistreated by Kennett police officers.
Police say in court documents that Ellis refused requests to calm down and
leave the property, allegedly kicking one's shin and splitting another's
lip while resisting arrest. Her trial on charges of assaulting police
officers, resisting arrest and disturbing the peace begins Wednesday in
Dunklin County Circuit Court. Syracuse, N.Y.-based Your Black World
Coalition is organizing a Monday rally in Kennett.
A college student in New Orleans at the time of her arrest, the 24-year-
old Ellis now teaches in Louisiana, where she is engaged to a state
trooper. She has said she feels trapped by "small-town politics" in
Kennett, where her family lives.
"What a shame the system can destroy a young person's future like this
because of bad cops," Ellis wrote to the NAACP in April.
The group subsequently held a rally in Kennett. Before the June 13 event
began, police officers found threatening letters the size of business
cards scattered along the route that said the Ku Klux Klan had paid a
visit and "the next visit will not be social."
Dunklin County Prosecutor Stephen Sokoloff said the cards were removed and
the source investigated but never discovered. He said he doubts the cards
actually were from the KKK; he knows of no KKK presence in the area. A
call to the KKK headquarters was not answered.
As for Ellis' allegations of mistreatment by law enforcement, Sokoloff
said he's "seen absolutely no evidence of any kind, apart from her
statements, that those things occurred." Kennett Police Chief Barry Tate
did not return phone calls seeking comment.
Kennett is a town of roughly 11,000 residents, about 1,500 of them black.
The police department also is predominantly white, but has actively worked
to recruit more women and minorities, said longtime resident Charles B.
Brown, who served as mayor from 1991 to 2003.
"We're a small country town with greater problems than racism. Our
problems are economic," he said, explaining that Kennett needs more jobs.
Some community leaders fear the "big paint roller" being used by observers
of Ellis' case has resulted in unfair portrayals of the town as
prejudiced.
"They're searching their hearts and minds, and that's just not us," he
said.
Sokoloff said he would have filed the same charges regardless of the races
of those involved. Last week, he took himself off the case, telling the
Southeast Missourian newspaper he hoped it would refocus attention on the
facts. A special prosecutor from Cape Girardeau County was appointed.
Ellis and her lawyers, Scott Rosenblum and T.J. Hunsaker in St. Louis,
declined to comment on the specifics of the case. She has previously
rejected plea deals.
"Why would you plea bargain if you're innocent?" said Ellis' father, the
Rev. Nathaniel Ellis of Kennett.
"This is not a matter of justice," he said. "It's a vendetta."
Ellis' written account to the NAACP describes she and her cousin getting
into separate checkout lanes before Ellis switched into the faster-moving
line. The woman behind them had placed items on the conveyor belt, and
Ellis alleged the woman pushed her when she tried to put her own items
down.
Witnesses instead told police that Ellis shoved the woman's merchandise
back, according to court filings.
Ellis wrote that a security officer and manager were called over and that
although Ellis said she wanted to pay, the manager yelled at her to leave
the store. Police were called and arrived.
Officers eventually followed her to the parking lot, she said, using
racial slurs and telling her to go back to the ghetto. As her aunt and
uncle drove into the parking lot, Ellis said, the officers "jumped" on her
even though she said she was not resisting.
Officer A.W. Fisher wrote in a probable cause statement that Ellis was
given "every opportunity" to comply with officers and leave the property.
He said she used an expletive in telling him she would beat him if he put
his hands on her.
Fisher said he then told Ellis she was under arrest, but she would not
stop fighting while being handcuffed.
Following her arrest, Ellis alleged, she was thrown against doors on the
way into jail and an officer later twisted her shirt with his knuckle to
choke her while she was in custody.
"Incidents involving our customers are unfortunate and we take them
seriously," Walmart spokesman Lorenzo Lopez said in a statement earlier
this month. "In this matter, there was a disturbance and law enforcement
was contacted, in accordance with our normal procedures. The police then
determined how to proceed."