Lavonte Douglas, a 24-year-old Missouri Western State University (MWSU) student has been found guilty of assaulting a law enforcement officer. On May 2, Judge John Boeh at St. Joseph Municipal Court ordered Douglas to pay the maximum fine for the charge, $500, and court costs.
The incident occurred,Feb. 27, at MWSU's Blum Student Union when Douglas pushed Officer Travis Fulton into a booth while he was proceeding to arrest him after Douglas repeatedly failed to show his ID card.
In his defense, Douglas alleged that he never meant to push Fulton in to a booth. He further said that when the police officer caught hold of his arm and then his hair, he lost balance and tripped over his foot and fell into the booth.
Douglas also denied using any abusive language during the incident.
During his court appearance, when Judge Boeh asked Douglas the reasons for not showing his ID card, he said that he felt he was being targeted by the police officers among his friends.
"Because I felt like if he wanted my ID, he should have gotten the ID of everyone else there of the group who was with me at the time," Douglas said.
This is not the first time Douglas has been accused of getting into a fracas with the police officers. In 2011, he faced domestic violence charges for once again failing to present his ID to a St. Joseph officer.
"You thought you had the right to walk around and ignore a police officer who works for Missouri Western," Boeh said before announcing his judgement. "You don't have that right to walk away. You do this again, you're going to go to jail, you understand that. You don't ever fight a law enforcement officer and resist arrest."
He also said that Douglas must obey officer's requests in the future.
