A Texas man has been charged with felony assault crimes after making good on a threat to drive his truck into the lobby of an Oklahoma hotel.
According to employees of the Comfort Inn and Suites in Alva, a man became irate after the hotel attempted to charge his credit card, but it was declined. The man became so belligerent that the two female employees called police to the scene.
Surveillance video shows the man, identified as 62-year-old John Edward Parsley of Gonzales, Texas, leaving the hotel and getting into his 2006 Sierra GMC, which was parked facing the hotel entrance. In the video, an officer approaches to speak with Parsley, who quickly accelerates, smashing through the entrance of the lobby and continuing through the desk. The two hotel clerks dive out of the way, narrowly avoiding being run over by the pickup truck.
The man then backs up and accelerates forward again. He appears to say something to the women he nearly struck with his vehicle before getting out of the truck and walking with his hands raised to the officer he left outside.
When the officer asked him why he crashed his truck into the lobby, Parsley allegedly replied that the women thought he was "bluffing" when he threatened to crash his truck into the hotel, and he wanted to prove that he wasn't.
Now, the man faces a high price indeed for proving a point.
Parsley is held in the Woods County Jail, charged with two counts of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and one count of malicious injury to property over $1,000. State's attorneys have requested that bond be denied to Parsley, calling him both a flight risk and a danger to others. Bond will be determined at a Brill hearing on December 16, and the defendant's next court date is scheduled for January 12.
If the allegations in this case are true, it seems to be an egregious case of overreaction. Certainly, it is frustrating if a credit card is declined, but that is an issue to take up with the issuer of the credit card, not the employees tasked with telling you the card has been declined. And it can also be frustrating to make an empty threat, only to have the threatened individual call your bluff. But handling it through an act of violence can only lead to much more serious problems.
If the defendant thought it was frustrating to have a credit card declined, how much more difficult has he made his life by committing a crime? If he was in financial difficulty before, that can only be compounded by an inability to work while in jail, court costs and fees, and hiring an attorney. And with bond denied, he will be spending the holidays in jail.
Finally, the felony charges he faces are serious indeed. Each count of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon is punishable by a maximum of 10 years in prison. Malicious injury to property is a misdemeanor if the value is under $1,000, but a felony if the value is $1,000 or greater. A person convicted faces not only prison time, but also must pay restitution of three times the damages, which may be collected through civil action.
