Jury selection begins in viral Waffle House arrest

Officials insist her arrest was by the book but many who saw the viral video feel otherwise

This week the jury selection has begun in the trial of Chikesia Clemons.

Aug 20, 2019

This week the jury selection has begun in the trial of Chikesia Clemons.

In April 2018, the Alabama native was arrested at a Waffle House in Saraland, Alabama and later found guilty of disorderly conduct and resisting arrest during a late night trial in Mobile County.

Her arrest made national headlines after a video of Clemons being manhandled by Saraland police officers inside a Waffle House went viral. In the clip, Clemons is shown being wrestled to the ground by three responding officers in what both the public and Black right’s activists believe was a clear incident of police brutality.

Law enforcement officials maintain that they were merely trying to get Clemons to leave the restaurant after she was drunk and had threatened employees there, but her lawyer, civil rights leader including the Rev. Al Sharpton, and many in the public believed the rough treatment was totally uncalled for.

Sharpton and activist Tamika Mallory went to Alabama on separate occasions to raise funds for her legal defense and advocate on Clemons’ behalf. Prominent civil rights attorney, Benjamin Crump, was hired to take on her case.

Clemons’ current jury trial is the result of her appeal of last year’s ruling by a municipal court judge finding her guilty of disorderly conduct and resisting arrest.

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