A 55-year-old Philadelphia woman pre-drinking before her flight home from her Disney World vacation never made it to the airport.
Latanya Wright was arrested for battery on a law enforcement officer, resisting an officer without violence and trespass after she was accused of kicking a sheriff deputy’s leg and refusing to leave Disney’s Pop Century Resort, records show.
Weeks after her Sept. 7 arrest, Wright remains in custody at the Orange County Jail as the public defender representing her has sought to get her released on her own recognizance or lower the $10,000 bond.
Orange-Osceola County Public Defender Melissa Vickers said tourists who get arrested at Disney World can face challenges getting their bonds lowered because of their lack of ties to the community.
“Many times the judiciary are hesitant to give lower bonds to people out of state because they need a guarantee that they’ll come back to court. That sometimes makes it difficult, especially for tourists to have a more reasonable or lower bond,” Vickers said.
Vickers acknowledged the hardship for Wright to be away from her home for this long as she waited for the state to formally file criminal charges against her, which took longer than 33 days.
Wright’s legal troubles began after she was cut off from alcohol because of her “level of intoxication” at the hotel, according to an Orange County Sheriff’s arrest report.
She became “aggressive and defiant,” the report said.
When she was asked to leave, Wright used “profanity and offensive gestures,” the arrest report said.
The hotel called her a taxi so she could wait at the airport for her flight but the management still wanted her trespassed so they contacted the Orange County Sheriff’s Office, the arrest report said.
“While waiting for the taxi to be ordered and arrive, Latanya kicked her luggage into my leg while being verbally aggressive. She was warned that such an action could lead to her being arrested for Battery on a Law Enforcement Officer,” the deputy wrote in the arrest report. “A short time later, Latanya kicked my leg while I was standing near her a subsequent time.”
Wright said, “I’m not going b**** and I’m not listening to anything the f*** ya’ll have to say,” according to the report.
The deputy asked her again, to confirm that she was not going to leave.
“F*** no,” Wright said.
The deputy put handcuffs on Wright and reported, “As I did Latanya braced, tensed, and ultimately attempted to defeat my efforts to secure her in the restraint device. She was eventually secured without sustaining injury.”
She was taken to Orange County Jail and has remained there through Oct. 25 when this story was reported.
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