Former Police Officer of Fields/Trump/Lewandowski Incident: Fields “Too Close to the Subject”

AND WHY TWO DIFFERENT REPORTS?

by Sharon Rondeau

(Mar. 29, 2016) — The Post & Email has received an “Arrest/Notice to Appear” and a Probable Cause affidavit from the Jupiter, FL Police Department stating that presidential candidate Donald Trump’s campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, has been charged with “Battery-Simple (Touch or Strike)” against former Breitbart reporter Michelle Fields.

Fields was attempting to ask Trump a question as he exited a March 8 campaign event held at Trump National located at 210 Military Trail in Jupiter.

The three-page document is signed by Officer Marc Bujnowski and dated March 29, 2016.

Within several days of the incident, Fields told Fox News’s Megyn Kelly that she was seeking “an apology.”  “What she got was something very different. The videos we have seen so far, like the one we just showed you, seem to show everything except the moment of alleged contact between Fields and Lewandowski,” Kelly reported on March 15.

Initially, Trump speculated on Twitter that Fields had “made up” the incident, and Lewandowski denied having made contact with her.

The Associated Press, Palm Beach Post, CBS News and Breitbart News published articles on the report and the accompanying security footage from the event.

The Post & Email was unable to view the footage received directly from Acting Records Supervisor Sue Starr of the Jupiter Police Department and consequently recontacted Starr with a screenshot of the attempt which indicated that the video had become “corrupted.”

Lewandowski was charged under Florida Statute 784.03, section “(1)(A)(1)” which reads:

The report The Post & Email received can be read in PDF format or in full below.

Jupiter FL Police Report Michelle Fields

In reviewing the AP’s report on the incident, The Post & Email noted that the quoted material reads differently than the report we received, about which we contacted Starr a second time:

Hello, Ms. Starr, I happened to see an AP report on the police report and note that their quotes from the report are different from what is printed on my copy.  Was there an interim report that I do not have?

http://hosted2.ap.org/wrko/88be40d5e7474593bb70560f3fb07c95/Article_2016-03-29-US-GOP-2016-Trump-Campaign-Manager/id-e8205779bb4847d5914b7bc86718f786

This is not a criticism if that is the case; I appreciate your sending me this today.

Sharon Rondeau, Editor
The Post & Email
www.thepostemail.com

In its article, the AP reported that “Lewandowski grabbed (Michelle) Fields’ left arm with his right hand causing her to turn and step back.”  The Post & Email’s report reads, “Lewandowski then grabbed Fields left arm with his right hand, causing her to turn and step back,” which is a difference of only the inclusion of the word “then.”  However, a second AP quote presumably from the police report reads, “appeared to show a grabbing-type injury,” which is not contained anywhere in The Post & Email’s version of the report.

The AP did not show the report it received, nor did the other sources whose reports The Post & Email reviewed.

As of press time, we have not received a response to either the video issue or the different police report accounts.

The Post & Email spoke with a former East Coast police officer about the video footage, and he told us:

One of the Secret Service agents put his hand out to block her (Michelle Fields), but he was too far away.  She’s actually between the other Secret Service agent that’s behind her trying to get to Trump.  You’ll also see to the left of Trump another agent with his back toward Trump trying to keep the perimeter clear.  She gets tugged back by Corey, and you’ll see the Secret Service agent sidestep her to get where he needs to be, and Corey brushes by her to close that gap.  So that’s going to be a security threat, No. 1,

No. 2, the statute doesn’t fit at all.  There is no threat of violence; there is no threat of injury; there is no intent. There has to be an intent.  He didn’t single her out.

If I were on that detail, I would have grabbed her by the back of the head.

I’m sure her feelings were hurt, but she should have known better than to run up on a presidential candidate with a Secret Service detail, and they just moved her out of the way.

You never let anybody get that close.  She was too close to the subject.  When you’re doing security work, you never let anybody get that close, never.

There’s nothing in society that says you can’t be stopped if you’re a security risk.  I have every right to push you away from my child or my wife if you pose a threat.

The former officer told us that the job of law enforcement is to investigate the claim and the prosecutor’s decision whether or not to issue a charge.  In this case, the video says there was contact.

At approximately 5:00 p.m. EDT, The Post & Email learned that the Daily Mail reported that an unnamed Secret Service agent providing security for Trump that evening said that “Fields was warned she was too close to the billionaire presidential candidate.”

The former police officer spoke with The Post & Email prior to the publication of the Daily Mail’s report, reposted at Breitbart.

On Fox News’s “The Five” on Tuesday, pundits Dana Perino and Greg Gutfeld opined that Lewandowski and Trump should have immediately apologized for the incident, with Perino stating that Fields’s reputation had been damaged and her job “lost” as a result.  Perino then clarified that Fields “resigned” her position at Breitbart, as did former editor Ben Shapiro and three other employees who believed that Breitbart favors the Trump campaign.

In the Daily Mail’s article, Trump is seen having tweeted, “Why is she allowed to grab me and shout questions? Can I press charges?”