Flip side is told in french fry flap
A police officer's report says the 75-year-old woman was mean and nasty.
By WILL VAN SANT, Times Staff Writer
Published January 22, 2008
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Could Jean Merola, the grandmother taken to jail after a wait for McDonald's fries deteriorated into a clash with a Clearwater police officer last week, be a belligerent troublemaker and not the victim of overzealous policing?
The officer's report on the dust-up, released Monday, describes a lawman struggling to persuade an unhinged woman to be sensible. At one point in the report, the officer said the 5-foot-6, 150-pound Merola moved toward him "with clenched fists, saying, 'You can't arrest me.'"
After absorbing extreme verbal abuse, the report suggests, the officer was left with no option but to arrest the 75-year-old woman.
Hogwash, Merola said Monday. Officer Matthew Parco's report is full of lies, she insisted.
"Boy, he needs a polygraph test," she said.
The story of Merola's encounter with Parco, which has the Clearwater widow fielding calls from media nationwide, began Thursday at a McDonald's on Hercules Avenue in Clearwater.
Around 4 p.m., Merola, who had no criminal record, was making her regular visit to the drive-through window for a coffee and some french fries without salt. Because the fries were a special request, Merola pulled her gray Lincoln Town Car forward to an area of striped asphalt where customers are asked to wait when their orders will be some minutes.
According to Parco's report, the first detailed account offered by Clearwater police, the officer was behind Merola. After getting his drink from the window, he tried to drive around her but the Town Car blocked his way. Seeing her window open, he called out for her to move the car.
After she did nothing but turn and give Parco a look, the officer approached and again asked her to move, according to the report.
Parco said she was immediately belligerent, telling him she could not move because the McDonald's people told her to wait there. She then warned Parco about the way he was speaking to her, the report states, and suggested he had better watch out because she knew the police chief.
Parco said Merola continued to yell after receiving her food, demanding that Clearwater police Chief Sid Klein respond to the scene. He pleaded with her to move for about 20 minutes, but she refused to budge, Parco said.
All the while, she flung insults his way, saying "You are an evil man," and "I hope you're a Christian, because you are going to hell!" according to the report.
Parco said he told Merola she was causing a disturbance that could potentially cost McDonald's business, then gave her the option of going to jail or moving along. She continued to be combative, so Parco cuffed Merola and put her in his cruiser.
She was jailed on a disorderly conduct charge and released on her own recognizance around 7:40 p.m.
A McDonald's manager backed Parco's account, according to the report. Laura Nicholson said Merola refused to move her car, was rude to Parco and told the officer he could not arrest her.
Merola remembers a very different scene. She admitted to calling Parco names after he suggested that she may be demented and would need to be held under the state's Baker Act. But she denied telling the officer he was evil and going to hell.
She also said she didn't move toward Parco with clenched fists or claim any pull with Clearwater's police chief.
"Those are the biggest lies that somebody could tell," she said. "I'm really hurt and irritated. Now I'm mad. I would love to meet him face to face."
In Merola's account, things got off to a poor start when Parco repeatedly honked his horn at her. She remembers wondering why he was honking at her and being angry that Parco didn't first come up to speak to her if there was a problem.
Parco's report doesn't mention any honking. But Ann Lansberry remembers it.
Lansberry and her daughter were in front of Merola in the drive-through lane that afternoon. After getting their double cheeseburgers, they pulled into a nearby parking space to eat.
Lansberry, 60, said she heard someone behind her laying on the horn, then looked back to see Parco at Merola's window. She could hear the gruff tone Parco was using and his raised voice, but not his precise words, she said.
"He could have approached her nicely, in my opinion," Lansberry said. "He was a little hyper because he couldn't get his car out."
Lansberry and her daughter left a few minutes later and didn't witness the remainder of the dispute.
Clearwater police say they are reviewing how Parco handled himself. The 30-year-old officer joined the force in December of 2006 and has no disciplinary history in his file.
Meanwhile, Tallahassee attorney Steve Andrews said he'll help Merola fight the disorderly conduct charge for free. Andrews, 53, grew up around the Merola family and has known Jean Merola since he was a kid. Andrews wants the charges dropped and an apology from police.
"She's tough. I could see her standing up to the police," he said.
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