At a Chattooga County budget meeting in Summerville, Ga., on Friday, a reporter suddenly found herself drenched by someone else’s soft drink.
In video footage from the meeting, a splash could be heard, but not seen. Voices rose in surprise, and the county commissioner, Jason Winters, could be seen saying, “Oh, my God.”
According to a police report, the person who spilled the soft drink was Abbey Winters, 35, who is married to Mr. Winters. The reporter, Casie Bryant, 39, said little but was left with dark liquid in her hair and dripping down her red jacket.
“Oh, that was classy,” Paula Arden, a high school English teacher who attended the meeting, could be heard saying in the video.
“She brought it on herself,” another voice said.
Ms. Winters was charged with disorderly conduct and simple battery on Friday.
“The listed witnesses all essentially stated that just before the meeting was to start that offender had intentionally poured some type of drink in a cup over victims’s head who was seated at the time,” the police report said.
It added that, according to several witnesses, the “offender said something to the effect of the victim ‘deserved it.’” None of the witnesses saw any provocation from the victim toward anyone before the drink was spilled, the report said.
Ms. Winters could not be reached immediately on Monday, and neither her lawyer nor Mr. Winters responded to requests for comment.
Ms. Winters said “she had accidentally poured the drink on victims’s head after stumbling/tripping near her,” according to the police report.
Ms. Winters was booked into jail on Friday and released on her own recognizance the same day, the county sheriff’s office said.
Ms. Bryant is a reporter for AllOnGeorgia, which reported on the meeting Friday and included a statement from Delvis Dutton, the owner of the news outlet and a former Republican state representative.
“What happened at the budget meeting today was completely inappropriate and I’m disappointed to see not only the behavior of those involved, but the excuses made for the behavior after the fact,” he said. “The media plays an integral role in ensuring transparency and these types of antics are dangerous to open government and a disservice to the people it serves.”
Mr. Winters oversees the county budget and was elected as county commissioner as a Democrat in 2008. He left the party in 2014 after he was photographed putting up signs in support of a Republican candidate for state senator. He ran and won as a Republican in 2016.
Ms. Arden, 59, said in an interview that it looked as if Ms. Winters had spilled the drink intentionally, and noted that Ms. Bryant had said on social media Thursday that she had gotten questions from Mr. Winters’s constituents about how public money was being spent.
Ms. Arden added that she had attended the meeting to raise questions about where the county’s tax dollars were going, but she didn’t get that chance. When Ms. Bryant, her friend, was soaked in soda — Ms. Arden said it was a Big Gulp full of ice and Coca-Cola — she escorted the reporter out to her car.
“I’m embarrassed and mortified by the situation, but I’m also glad it’s breaking nationally,” Ms. Arden said. “Maybe that kind of attention will get something done to oust the good old boys network that’s been in place here.”
Jimmy Holbrook, a reporter who attended the meeting, said in an interview that there was unusually high attendance on Friday — perhaps, in part, because people were concerned about property tax increases in a county that was “strapped for money” — and that it was unusual to see Ms. Winters there.
Mr. Holbrook, who ran as a Democrat against Mr. Winters for the county commissioner seat in 2016, also said that the spill seemed intentional. He added that both Ms. and Mr. Winters said that Ms. Bryant deserved what had happened to her, and that he did not hear an apology from them.
“Normally, when it’s an accident, people will say, ‘Oops, sorry!’” Mr. Holbrook said, adding that Ms. Winters addressed Ms. Bryant with an expletive, which could be heard on the video, after the spill.
Ms. Bryant could not be reached for comment on Monday.
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December 17, 2019 at 04:26AM
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Commissioner’s Wife Spills Drink on Reporter’s Head at County Meeting - The New York Times
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