Three actresses are calling for the boycott of an Atlanta restaurant after they were arrested for entering the restaurant and taking too long in the restroom.
Erica Walker, Brittany Marie Lucio and Asia’h Sharrell Epperson, a former finalist on American Idol and an actress on the television series Greenleaf, entered Houston’s in Atlanta on Mother’s Day. Although the kitchen was closed, the women say the restaurant was open and customers were still dining when they went to the restroom, according to 11 Alive.
Houston’s snitch shift manager summoned an off-duty police officer who was working security to remove the women from the restroom after they were in there for a grand total of 10 minutes. The officer’s report indicates that he entered the bathroom and asked the women to leave, but they laughed at him.
The report states that the cop grabbed Lucio by the wrist, but she pulled away and said, “Get your hands off me!” The officer grabbed her wrist again and pulled her outside the restaurant, and that’s when things got crazy.
According to the officer’s version of events, the woman whom he just easily pulled out of a bathroom and through a restaurant and dragged outside, went Super Saiyan and screamed: “Get your fucking hands off me! You ain’t about to touch me.”
The policeman says that Lucio then punched him in the mouth, causing a cut to his lip. The off-duty cop told employees to call 911, but by then, Lucio had apparently turned her superpowers off, because the cop was able to restrain both Lucio and Walker all by himself. Meanwhile, Epperson pulled out her phone and began recording.
The video shows the officer holding Lucio and Walker in the bushes as they try to get him off of them. One of them claimed that she was going to call the “real cops” as a restaurant employee, presumably the shift manager, explained that she was assaulting a police officer.
Soon another officer arrived and arrested all three women for criminal trespass. Lucio was also charged with felony obstruction. The Atlanta Police Department says that the actresses’ charges of excessive force will be reviewed by the department’s Office of Professional Standards.
Attorney Gerald Griggs, who represents Lucio, says that the women were invited to the restaurant to meet some friends who were dining and cites numerous “factual inaccuracies” in the police report. Celebrities in the Atlanta area have called for a boycott of the restaurant, including rapper and infamous user of polysyllabic words T.I.
Meanwhile, Houston’s restaurant issued a statement:
The evidence we have seen thus far shows that three women arrived approximately 30 minutes after closing time, they went into the restroom as a group after being told that the restaurant was closed. The three stayed in the restroom for more than 10 minutes, and refused to leave despite repeated requests from several managers to do so. Eventually, an off-duty Atlanta Police Officer was summoned with whom one or more of the women got into an altercation that led to arrests. Based on our current understanding, we believe our managers responded appropriately to this unfortunate situation.
The official policy of Houston’s seems to be that the police need to be involved in any bathroom activity that takes longer than 10 minutes. Although I would never besmirch the fine reputation of such a fine establishment, the statement makes it clear:
Houston’s restaurant in Atlanta ain’t worth a shit.