Skip to main contentJeff Stetson and his girlfriend, Kourtney Lockwood, had a great time at the Damian Marley and Nas show July 31 at the Roseland Theater.
Then they left the club. And that's when the fun stopped.
The couple spent the night in jail after trying to cross the street and allegedly resisting police. Stetson was injured by the cops in front of a crowd of enraged onlookers who snapped photos and booed the cops.
The violent arrest over a seemingly petty infraction left witness Jeni Rose Larsen feeling her night out had morphed into a bad dream because of the way police reacted.
"As a person watching, I kind of felt violated myself," Larsen says. "It was just so messed up."
Stetson and Lockwood left the venue at 8 NW 6th Ave. along with 1,300 other fans shortly before midnight when the three-hour hip-hop/reggae concert ended.
As sometimes happens at the Roseland, especially after hip-hop shows, police had a heavy presence on the streets outside.
Last Friday, police cruisers lined the entire block along Northwest 6th Avenue between West Burnside and Northwest Couch streets. Police directed the concertgoers north into Old Town and forbade them to cross Northwest 6th or Burnside.
But Stetson, 28, and Lockwood, 26, wanted to go that direction because they live in the South Park Blocks. They tried to scurry across Northwest 6th just north of the Burnside intersection.
Lockwood made it across the street. Stetson was trailing a few steps behind her when Officer Derek Carmon approached him from behind.
All Stetson says he remembers is being tackled. Larsen says Carmon grabbed Stetson's arm, then tackled him when Stetson pulled away. Two other officers piled on top of Stetson, Larsen says, even though Stetson was not resisting.
Lockwood says she began yelling at the police. As officers put her and Stetson in handcuffs, the crowd of several hundred people grew agitated, snapping photos with their cell phones and calling the cops Nazis. Larsen says fans were peaceful during the show and got rowdy only when the police stepped in.
Lockwood and Stetson say they each had four or five beers during the show but weren't drunk. They disobeyed orders, they say, because they wanted to get home and didn't see any reason not to cross the street.
They spent the night in jail on charges of interfering with police. Both pleaded guilty Aug. 3. Stetson was sentenced to eight hours of community service on one count. Lockwood got 16 hours on two counts, one for disobeying orders and one for preventing police from performing their duties.
They say they pleaded guilty because it was easier than fighting the charges and they don't mind community service.
Stetson was left with scrapes on his right knee, right wrist and right elbow, and cuts and bruises on his left forearm and wrist. He wore a wrist brace Monday and said he had no feeling in his left hand because of the handcuffs. Now they plan to consult a lawyer about a possible lawsuit.
Police spokeswoman Mary Wheat says officers' reports of the incident—which were not released to WW by press time—tell a different story.
According to the cops, Carmon first tried to stop the couple verbally, but they wouldn't listen. Then he touched Stetson's arm, but Stetson pulled away. Next he tried putting Stetson in a control hold, but Stetson again resisted so Carmon took him to the ground.
Officers noted they both seemed intoxicated.
"It's not like these guys were just walking down the street, and the police decided to tackle them," Wheat says, adding the police presence was part of an ongoing effort to keep downtown safe.
Stetson sees things differently.
"It just seemed like the cops were out there looking for trouble," he says. "They were basically just bullying people."
In 2006, four people were wounded outside the Roseland when more than a dozen shots were fired after a Keak da Sneak show.
WWeek 2015