LAKELAND, Fla. — A Lakeland woman’s defense team is speaking out about the charges against her after an incident at a McDonald’s.
Tianis Jones is still visibly shaken by the attention she’s receiving after an outburst she had at a Lakeland McDonald’s last week went viral.
“They should have gone into more detail about the story and researched the story before releasing images or videos to the public,” Jones said.
Jones is being charged with burglary, disorderly conduct, criminal mischief and misuse of 911 stemming from the May 19 incident. His attorney, Jeremy McLymont, said Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd used a news conference to ridicule and mock Jones.
“I don’t know if he was two fries short of a happy meal or maybe he was missing a happy meal altogether, but he created a McMess and acted like a McNutt,” Judd said during the press conference.
Klyvia Vargas said her daughter attempted suicide after the news conference, where Judd made fun of the situation.
“My daughter attempted suicide two days later and had she not arrived on time, she would have been successful,” Vargas said.
According to Jones’ attorney, he has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and depression. She has not been taking her medication because she is pregnant.
“When Sheriff Grady Judd gets on his stand and starts talking about what happened that day at McDonald’s when he starts mimicking Tianis Jones, he doesn’t realize that his comments are very dangerous. He doesn’t realize that he is affecting Tianis’s mental health,” McLymon said.
Mental health educator Natasha Pierre said the sheriff, by making light of the situation, further stigmatizes mental illness.
“Elected officials and our leaders set the tone for the conversations. They set the tone for how people respond to mental illness,” said Pierre.
Sheriff Grady Judd doubled down on his actions, in a statement to ABC Action News:
Look back at our initial press release on May 20, 2022 and my briefing to the media… we were trying to track down an obviously hostile woman who had committed a serious crime at McDonald’s. She violently disrupted the business and her actions threatened the employees, and then she fled. She knew her scandalous behavior was wrong, but she did it anyway. In other words, if she can’t do McTime, don’t do McCrime. We got the result we wanted; she was arrested and charged. She now she has some McLawyers to defend her while we move on to other crimes to solve. The next could be a Whopper.
Pierre would have liked to see crisis intervention training, in this case.
“We’re not asking officers or law enforcement to be mental health experts, but we’re asking them to have a fundamental understanding of what people in behavioral health crises are experiencing,” Pierre said.
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