LOGAN, OHIO — Alecia Dawn Kitts, 34, of Marietta, sat in the bleachers at a Logan-Hocking middle-school football game on September 23, 2020, without a mask. A school resource officer told her to put one on. She said she had asthma and was not going to. He told her to leave. She did not. Video recorded by another spectator shows a struggle of nearly two minutes before he fired a Taser into her shoulder, handcuffed her, and walked her out of the stands. Logan Police charged criminal trespass, not a mask crime. She was later charged with resisting arrest and released at the scene.
The clip did what 2020 clips did. It became a referendum on cops, schools, and a public-health order that treated bleachers like a booking desk. Kitts can be heard yelling. Another spectator threatens to sue. NBC 新闻 和 The Washington Post ran the footage. The district took threat calls and locked students down. Nobody was charged for the mask. The case was always about whether a fan who will not leave a school event is a trespasser, and whether a Taser is how you settle that argument in front of children.
From not-guilty to a $350 fine
Kitts first pleaded not guilty in Hocking County Municipal Court. Her attorney later moved to dismiss. A judge denied it. In May 2021 she rejected a plea that would have dropped the resisting charge, left her with trespass, a fine, and a year of no-contact probation that would have barred her from Hocking County school sporting events. She wanted a jury.
On the eve of trial in September 2021 she changed her mind. Appointed Judge Michael T. Brandt took a no-contest plea to both counts. The municipal court fined her $200 for resisting arrest and $150 for criminal trespass, plus court costs, WTAP and the Logan Daily News reported. No jail. No jury. The Taser video is still on the internet. The mask order is not.
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