DUBOIS – A DuBois woman who argued and spit on police officers has been charged with aggravated assault.
Sandy Township police say Samantha Beatty, 30, was intoxicated when they encountered her at her home on Jan. 18.
They had been called to the scene because a neighbor reported that she knocked on his door and started yelling at him first about being a child molester and then about the landlord.
She attempted to strike him, but he was able to block the strike and told her to go home.
After she refused to leave, her friend “dragged her back to the residence.”
Once they were on the scene, police asked her why she went to the neighbor’s place and she claimed she wanted to ask him about the landlord.
When asked why she called him a child molester, she said she found him on the Megan’s Law list and was concerned about a teen girl who stays with her sometimes. She did admit that the neighbor has never approached the girl.
The officer noted that Beatty had slurred speech and “was stumbling all over the residence and on the porch.”
Her friend said Beatty was “extremely intoxicated” and said she would try to keep her in the home.
When Beatty was told to go inside, she began recording the officers with her phone. She was told several times to go inside the residence but she kept yelling at the officers.
She followed them towards the roadway, stepped in front of one of them and put her phone in his face. Because she was standing on the side of the roadway, she was told she was being placed under arrest for public drunkenness.
When the officer grabbed her by the hand, she pulled away. They took her to the ground and she was placed in handcuffs, which were double locked.
As they tried to assist her to her feet, she spit on one of them, hitting him in the collarbone and neck.
They took her to the ground a second time before trying to get her into a police vehicle.
“She was refusing to walk.”
Because they were unable to get her into the car, they called for backup and officers from the DuBois City police helped get her into the vehicle where she continued to spit. She also banged her head against the door and kicked it.
A spit mask had to be put on her but she continued to spit while it was on her face. Once they got to the station, she “continued to fight with officers” trying to get her into the building.
In addition to aggravated assault, Beatty is charged with disorderly conduct, defiant trespass, resisting arrest, public drunkenness and harassment.
She is in the Clearfield County Jail in lieu of $50,000 bail. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Jan. 27 during centralized court in District Judge David S. Meholick’s office.
