Transgender Woman, Chrissy Polis, McDonald's Beating Victim,Faces Disorderly Charges
Chrissy Lee Polis, free on $7,500 bail, faces a trial in District Court in February. She did not return calls to a phone number listed in court documents.
A Baltimore County police officer arrested Polis at her Essex apartment on Dec. 3, alleging in court charging documents that she became disorderly and shouted obscenities when she became dissatisfied with the way he handled her complaint. Polis had called police saying that her Chocolate brand purse, cell phone and $800 in cash had been taken in a robbery.
Polis was charged as Christopher Lee Polis. Baltimore County's top prosecutor and a county police spokeswoman confirmed that the suspect is the same person who was assaulted at the McDonald's in April after she tried to use the woman's bathroom.
That case attracted national attention and prompted changes in hate crime statutes in jurisdictions across Maryland. On Monday, the Howard County Council toughened its hate crime laws as part of a law proposed after the Polis case.
The latest incident occurred Dec. 3 near Polis' Essex apartment. Polis told the officer that she was walking home and attacked outside her apartment building by a man wearing a black and white striped hooded sweatshirt.
She told police the man hit her in the head with an unknown object and stole her purse. But the officer taking the report said Polis "gave several different variations of his recollection of the events" and "became very agitated."
The officer wrote in charging documents that Polis screamed profanities and disrupted the neighborhood. The officer said Polis let him into her apartment, which he described as having a mattress but no furniture.
The officer said in the court documents that one neighbor saw a man in a black and white striped hooded sweatshirt knocking on Polis' door, but that she did not open it. Several other neighbors said they did not hear an attack or screaming. Polis told the officer that "as the robbery was occurring [she] was screaming and even chased the suspect," according to the report.
Charging documents say that Polis became agitated again and "was causing a major disturbance in the neighborhood and would not lower his voice even though I was continually advising him to do so. ... [she] continued to scream, 'You don't know who I am. I will have you fired ..."
Det. Cathy Batton, a spokeswoman for the Baltimore County Police Department, said this morning that detectives are investigating Polis' complaint of being robbed.
I'm sure you all remember this sad and horrific incident.
Maryland Disorderly Conduct Laws
ReplyDeleteDisorderly conduct, under Maryland law, includes the following actions:
Blocking the passing of people into or out of a public place
Acting in a disorderly manner that disturbs the peace
Not obeying a lawful order by the police made in an attempt to keep the peace
Making unreasonable loud noises or disturbing the peace of another
As you can see, there are many actions that could be considered disorderly conduct or disturbing the peace. And the law is deliberately vague. A police officer has the discretion to arrest you anytime he or she feels that you are being difficult or a nuisance. Even if you are simply expressing your rights to free speech.
So it is easy to see why you may have not even been aware you were breaking the law at the time. Actions like “making unreasonably loud noises” are quite vague and very frequent occurrences.
That's why we are prepared to argue in many case that whatever happened was perfectly legitimate, and that the police officer may have overreacted.
In these cases, the criminal charges against you should be dismissed.