City Councilwoman Sandra Reid, left, and Council President Wanda Williams.
The story of Harrisburg City Councilwoman Sandra Reid’s arrest will remain a “one-sided conversation” for now, Reid said Friday afternoon, during an interview in which the councilwoman declined to give her version of the events leading up to her arrest last week at a city gas station.
She did, however, partially dispute the description provided by District Attorney Ed Marsico yesterday as part of his announcement of a disorderly conduct charge for Reid, a lesser charge than the obstruction of the administration of law for which she was arrested after allegedly interfering with the work of Harrisburg police.
According to Marsico, Reid had “repeatedly berated” officers who were detaining a man allegedly involved in a harassment incident at the City Gas & Diesel station in the 1500-block of State Street.
Reid, who said she received law enforcement’s description of her actions for the first time yesterday, said it was “not completely accurate.”
She declined to elaborate further, however, saying she had been instructed by her attorney not to discuss an “open case.”
Reid spoke to two reporters for just under an hour Friday afternoon in a quietly arranged meeting at the abc27 studio on Hoffman Street uptown, in what was her first on-the-record interview since her arrest.
Although she declined to discuss the incident, the councilwoman did address her perception in the media, her interactions with officials since her arrest and her frustration with reactions from members of the public.
She also discussed her on-camera reference to the shooting of Michael Brown by a police officer in Ferguson, Mo., in city hall earlier this week, as well as several outstanding warrants she faced for a number of previous minor offenses.
Reid, upset by the intensity of reactions to what she emphasized was only a summary offense, said the past week has been “traumatic.” “I’ve been villainized as if I’ve committed murder,” she said.
She also said her experience had left her with a feeling that she was “guilty until proven innocent,” and described the events since her arrest as “one of the most trying things” she has been through.
Reid appeared calm and collected throughout the interview. She was not accompanied by her lawyer or any other party.
She said she had wanted to give a statement to the district attorney, but that her lawyer had advised against it. First Assistant District Attorney Fran Chardo confirmed Thursday that Marsico’s description of the incident relied solely on testimony from the police officers and video footage collected from both police dashboard cameras and surveillance cameras at the store.
Reid said she had not spoken since her arrest with Mayor Eric Papenfuse because he was the “CEO of the police department” and it would be a conflict to discuss an active case with him.
She acknowledged speaking with the police chief, Thomas Carter, in the days following the incident, but said they had not talked about it since the case was referred to the district attorney’s office at the end of last week.
She also said she had not seen the brief statement Papenfuse issued late on Thursday, which described her arrest as “an unfortunate incident that escalated too quickly.” Presented with the statement Friday, she declined to say whether she agreed or disagreed, saying that would be tantamount to making a statement about the details of the incident itself.
Reid also addressed a set of outstanding warrants she faced for a variety of low-level offenses, which had been featured in several news reports and which she claimed to have learned about for the first time following her arrest.
Three of the warrants were for unpaid fines for failure to file a local income tax return in 2002, 2007 and 2008. A fourth related to an unpaid 2012 parking ticket, while a fifth related to having been in Negley Park in Lemoyne late at night in violation of a park ordinance.
Reid said she paid the fines on all five warrants, which totaled around $250, earlier in the day on Friday.
An employee in the district court of Judge Marsha Stewart, where four of the five warrants were filed, confirmed on Friday that Reid’s fines had been “paid in full.” An employee in the Cumberland County district court, which held jurisdiction over the warrant for the Negley Park incident, also said Reid had paid her fine.
She expressed frustration at how the warrants were characterized in news reports and comments on news sites, saying people had treated her as if she was “some kind of criminal” out of proportion to the size of and reason for the fines.
Reid also explained her state of mind during an on-camera exchange with reporters in city hall earlier this week, in which the councilwoman said, “Hands up, don’t shoot,” in reply to a question about her arrest.
The remark was a reference to the series of protests this fall following the shooting of Michael Brown, an unarmed black teenager, in Ferguson, Mo., in which the phrase “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot” was often used to invoke the image of excessive police force, particularly against minorities.
“I was frustrated at the time,” Reid said of her use of the phrase. She said the national conversation about relations between police and minority communities was important, but declined to relate it to Harrisburg police in particular, saying they were a party in the case over her arrest.
