JONESBORO, Ark. — Police have opened an investigation into an incident of unwanted physical contact at a downtown restaurant that was shown on video posted to social media.
The incident happened on Sept. 18 at Skinny J’s restaurant, 205 S. Main Street in Jonesboro, according to an incident report filed with JPD. A 27-year-old female, who was working as a server, made the report on the day of the incident.
As the server was working, the defendant, John Ed Roleson, 52, of Paragould, entered the business. Roleson is the owner of Holiday Liquor in Paragould, the report says, and was there to pick up his check.
The report states that Roleson approached the server, they had a brief conversation, and then he began twirling her around as if they were dancing. The alleged victim attempted to get the suspect to go and wait at the bar. She resumed speaking to her customer. That’s when Roleson slapped the victim on the butt, as seen on video. He then laughed about the matter and walked away.
Victim #1 stated that she then confronted Suspect #1 (Roleson, John Ed) about the incident and told him to never touch her again. Suspect #1 (Roleson, John Ed) then told Victim #1 that he loved her and apologized. Both Victim #1 and Suspect #1 (Roleson, John Ed) then separated, but then Victim #1 later requested for an officer.
At the time of the incident report, the officer advised the victim that she needed to file an affidavit with the city attorney’s office to pursue a misdemeanor charge of harassment.
On Thursday, Sept. 25, NEA Report contacted the Jonesboro Police Department to request the report. Quickly, the situation changed after several people in the police station reviewed the case and the video. According to Public Information Official Sally Smith, detectives in CID began investigating the case. Smith said the case would be referred to the district prosecuting attorney’s office for consideration of charges. The district prosecutor makes felony charging decisions.
Roleson was banned from the restaurant, the owner told NEA Report, adding that they were no longer purchasing alcohol from Holiday Liquor.
All suspects are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
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John’s a nasty loud-mouth rich overprivilegedracist, too. Keep researching about his N-word comments on Facebook. He’s infamous in Paragould. I should know.
Just an observation – I googled “roleson liquor” and the Google AI thing already has this. That’s fast.
he musta been drunk or something
POP he slapted dat shit yo. ahhhh wtf? he tweakin.
This is totally unacceptable. Mr Roleson should be held responsible for his actions.