Mouthful Gets Metro Passenger Handcuffs and Jail


By Lyndsey Layton
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, July 29, 2004; Page A01


Stephanie Willett is a 45-year-old scientist for the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency from Bowie whose skirmishes with the law had largely
been limited to a couple of speeding tickets.

Until she was caught chewing inside a Metro station.

About 6:30 p.m. July 16, Willett was eating a PayDay candy bar while
riding the escalator from 11th Street NW into the Metro Center Station.
Metro Transit Police Officer Cherrail Curry-Hagler was riding up.

The police officer warned Willett to finish the candy before entering
the station because eating or drinking in the Metro system is illegal.

Willett nodded, kept chewing the peanut-and-caramel bar and stuffed the
last bit into her mouth before throwing the wrapper into the trash can
near the station manager's kiosk, according to both Willett and
Curry-Hagler.

Curry-Hagler turned around and followed Willett into the station.
Moments after making a remark to the officer, Willett said, she was
searched, handcuffed and arrested for chewing the last bite of her candy
bar after she passed through the fare gates. She was released several
hours later after paying a $10 fine, pending a hearing.

"We've been doing our best to crack down on people who are consuming
food and beverages in our stations because we get so many complaints
about it," said Lisa Farbstein, a Metro spokeswoman. "In this instance,
the woman was given a warning, which she ignored, and she jammed the
rest of the candy bar into her mouth and continued to chew."

Willett said she was being unfairly punished because she made fun of the
police officer after Curry-Hagler issued a second warning before the
arrest.

"Why don't you go and take care of some real crime?" Willett said she
told the officer while still swallowing the PayDay bar as she rode a
second escalator to catch her Orange Line train home.

The police officer ordered Willett to stop and produce identification.
"I said, 'For what?' and kept walking," Willett said.

In a report, Curry-Hagler said she wanted to issue a citation for eating
on the Metro but the PayDay lover refused to stop.

"Next thing I knew, she pushed me into the cement wall, calls for backup
and puts handcuffs on me," Willett said.

She said Curry-Hagler patted her down, running her hands around
Willett's bust, under her bra and around her waist. Two other officers
appeared, and the three took Willett to a waiting police cruiser.

At the D.C. police 1st District headquarters, Willett said, she was
locked in a cell with another person. At 9:30 p.m., after she paid a $10
fine, Willett was released to her husband.

"It was humiliating," said Willett, who is to appear in court in
October. "It was a complete waste of taxpayers' money and the officers'
time as well as mine. It was just about her trying to retaliate against
me because I made a comment about how insignificant I thought the matter
was."

"I understand the intent of them not wanting people to eat in the
Metro," Willett said. "If anything, I was chewing in the Metro."

Farbstein said Willett violated the rules. "Chewing is eating," she
said.

Sen. Leo E. Green (D-Prince George's) complained in writing to Metro
Chief Executive Richard A. White. "They have better things to do than
arrest someone for that," said Green, who has not received a response.
"It just seemed way out of bounds."

Metro occasionally has come under fire for what some considered extreme
enforcement of its no-eating rules. The best-known example was in 2000,
when a transit police officer handcuffed a 12-year-old girl for eating a
single french fry on a subway platform.

The incident catapulted Metro into the national spotlight, and talk
radio hosts debated whether the agency had gone too far in its devotion
to order. A federal judge later said the police were "foolish" to arrest
the girl but ruled that Metro did not violate her constitutional rights.

The candy bar arrest follows several recent decisions by Metro that have
angered passengers. Metro tried to run two-car trains late at night to
save money, but the cars became very crowded. And the transit agency
started requiring passengers to pay for parking with SmarTrip electronic
fare cards but soon found it was running out of cards.



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