HAWAII: Lesbian Couple Files Federal Suit Against Cop They Say Arrested Them For Kissing In Public

A Los Angeles lesbian couple yesterday filed a federal lawsuit against a Honolulu police officer whom they accuse of arresting them for kissing in a grocery store. The couple was on a Hawaii vacation at the time. The Associated Press reports:

Courtney Wilson and Taylor Guerrero, who were visiting Hawaii from Los Angeles in March, said in a federal lawsuit filed Tuesday that they were harassed and arrested because the officer didn’t like their public displays of affection in a Foodland store on Oahu’s North Shore. They were walking through the aisles holding hands and at one point hugged and kissed, the lawsuit said: Officer Bobby Harrison, who was shopping in uniform, “observed their consensual romantic contact and, in a loud voice, ordered plaintiffs to stop and ‘take it somewhere else.'”

The women complied and continued shopping, the lawsuit said. When Harrison again saw them being affectionate with each other, he threatened to have them thrown out of the store. “We’re used to people making remarks here and there,” Wilson said of their two-year relationship. While the women were in the check-out line, Harrison grabbed Wilson by the wrist, and she started to call 911, she said. “He was bumping his belly against Courtney,” Guerrero said. “He said, ‘you girls don’t know how to act. You don’t know the difference between a motel and a grocery store.'” When Guerrero tried to get in between her girlfriend and the officer, he shoved her. She kicked him as she was falling, she said. “The whole situation got physical,” Wilson said. “I got punched in the face by him.”

The couple was arrested for felony assault on a police officer and spent three days in jail before being released on bail. Charges were eventually dropped, but not before the couple was forced to get local jobs because they were forbidden from leaving Hawaii while the charges were pending. The Honolulu Police Department has opened an investigation and the grocery store has apologized to the couple.