This column about texting in movie theaters by Watchdog Nation founder Dave Lieber touched a nerve with many people when it first appeared in the Dave Lieber Watchdog column in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. The story received more than 100,000 Internet hits and turned out to be the #1 most read story in 2011 on the newspaper’s website. You can decide for yourself how you feel about this unusual situation.
Meet Dale Fout and Brenda Godwin. One weekday in April, they both went to a movie theater in Grapevine. Sat a row apart. Didn’t know each other.
By coincidence, they were born in the same year, two days apart. Both are 54. Fout, a marketing consultant, describes himself as a 220-pound “pretty big guy. I’m broad. I’m not fat. Used to play football.” Godwin says she is a 136-pound skin care specialist. Here’s how they met in the theater.
Her side
“He had his phone out. The light was shining at me. I’m thinking, ‘He’s going to turn it off.’” But he didn’t. ‘OK, this is ridiculous.’ So I reached over and tapped him on the shoulder. It was very bright. I was only trying to get his attention. He whipped around and said, ‘Don’t ever touch me.’ I was a little taken aback. ‘I wouldn’t have touched you if you didn’t have your phone out.’
“He jumps up and whirls around towards me and says, ‘I am charging you with assault,’ and he flew out of the theater.”
His side
Dale Fout
“I got a text, and I responded to it because it was something important. It was something that was on a deadline situation, OK. I held it against my chest purposely where I could barely see it. … I could text but hide the majority of the light coming from the phone.
“She said something. I couldn’t make it out. That’s why I turned. She was probably saying something like, ‘Get off your phone.’ I turned, and she pushed. She just happened to push my neck at the time my neck was in an awkward position. Kinda like having a little fender bender, and you get a little whiplash in your neck, you know.”
- – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - -
More Watchdog Nation News:
Watchdog Nation Partners with Mike Holmes
America meets Watchdog Nation/Listen to Fun Radio Interview
Watchdog Nation Debuts New e-Book and Multi-CD Audio Book
- – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - -
Police report
“Fout advised he had been assaulted and his neck was in pain,” officer Emily Hays wrote. Fout was treated for neck pain by Grapevine paramedics. “Fout said a female who was sitting behind him in Theater 8 grabbed him by the shoulder because he was texting during the movie,” Hays wrote. “Fout said he got up, walked out of the theater and asked management to call police.”
Godwin told police, Hays wrote, that “she tapped him on the shoulder with one finger to ask him to stop texting. Godwin advised the male then jumped out of his chair and ran outside of the theater.
“Fout stated he was offended by the contact and desires prosecution. Godwin was issued citation #P0039176 for assault by contact.”
Police comment
“We’re the middle person on this,” Lt. Todd Dearing says. “Assault by contact is usually not something like this. It’s usually a shove.” Because police didn’t witness the incident, a ticket was written. It’s a misdemeanor, the equivalent of a traffic ticket. “We stay neutral in these things. That’s what the courts are for.”
The legal side
The common thinking is that in Texas, unwanted touching can justify an assault charge. That’s true, but there are requirements.
The law says: “A person commits an offense if the person … intentionally or knowingly causes physical contact with another when the person knows or should reasonably believe that the other will regard the contact as offensive or provocative.”
Jeff Bellin, SMU assistant professor of law, says that a tap is not an assault but that a shove may be.
“It would be a jury question, but I think most people would agree that tapping someone on the shoulder, even if you don’t know them, is normal. We expect that kind of interaction in our everyday lives.”
A jury would have to decide which person to believe. Fout’s injury would be key. He says his neck hurts “a little bit. I’m seeing a chiropractor. It’s not like she knocked me to the floor. … The therapist said, ‘Yeah, she put a knot right there.’ A tap on the shoulder isn’t going to cause that.”
Godwin says, “If he hurt his neck, that’s probably because of the way he whipped around.”
Because Godwin lives in Richmond, Va., she said it would be too expensive to return and fight the charge. So she paid a $260 fine.
After this story appeared, Fout appeared on the local TV news to defend himself.
What should you do?
The incident occurred at Cinemark Tinseltown, whose policy is to give texters a chance to behave. If they don’t, they are removed and given a refund or a rain check.
“If they are texting, we ask them to return to the theater at a time when they are less busy and can enjoy the movie,” Cinemark spokesman James Meredith says.
Watchdog tip: Although Cinemark says it sends employees into each theater every 20-30 minutes to check behavior, why wait? Go outside and talk to a staffer about the problem. Let that person do the deed.
# # #
Visit Watchdog Nation Headquarters
Like Watchdog Nation on Facebook
Watch Watchdog Nation on YouTube
Twitter @DaveLieber
Dave Lieber shows Americans how to fight back against corporate deceptions in his wonderful national award-winning book, Dave Lieber’s Watchdog Nation: Bite Back When Businesses and Scammers Do You Wrong. Are you tired of losing time, money and aggravation to all the assaults on our wallets? Learn how to fight back with ease — and win. Get the book here.
Read The Watchdog Nation manifesto here!
