Surveillance Video Shows Groped Waitress Take Matters into Her Own Hands
A 21-year-old waitress is going viral after she body-slammed a man who groped her while she was working.
According to CBS News, college student Emelia Holden was waitressing at Vinnie VanGo-Go’s on June 30 when the incident occurred.
Video from the Savannah, Georgia, pizzeria shows a man walking by and grabbing Holden by the backside and then casually walking away.
Holden wasn’t having any of that. She went after the man, grabbed him by his shirt and slammed him into what appears to be a cart.
“I took someone’s order and I was getting ready to set them up and then I just felt it,” Holden told WTOC.
“I was like, ‘nope, that’s not going to happen’ and turned around and took the guy down.”
She says that she was surprised by her own strength.
“I’m 115 pounds. I didn’t know I could do that,” she said. “I guess I just had the right stance for it and I did it.”
Allegedly being caught on video was just the beginning of Ryan Cherwinski’s problems. The pizzeria turned over the video to police and the 31-year-old Palm Bay, Florida, resident was charged with a misdemeanor count of sexual battery.
In the police report, Cherwinski said that “it was an accident that he grabbed the waitress (and) that he was only trying to inform her that to move because she was in the way.”
You take a look at the video and decide for yourself — a jury likely will if Cherwinski doesn’t reach a plea deal — but that doesn’t exactly seem to be, um, the most plausible explanation to this writer.
Holden doesn’t buy it, either.
“To see them put him in handcuffs, it was nice,” she said in an interview.
And then things got even worse for Cherwinski when viral infamy came a-knockin’.
On Reddit, a user posted the video in the /r/JusticeServed subreddit along with the caption, “My cousin takes this pervert down for grabbing her a–. He is later arrested in front of his wife and 2 kids when the cops arrived.”
Most of the responses have been positive toward Holden’s action — although this being the internet, there will always be a subset of trolls.
“There’s also been the few that are like, ‘those shorts are small,'” Holden said. “That shouldn’t matter. It’s upsetting to see people that have that train of thought, but it’s really reassuring to see how positive everyone else has responded to it.”
“Recently, there’s the whole #MeToo movement, and I think that’s really great,” she added. “What I get from this is just how inspiring it is to other women. You have every right to stand up for yourself no matter who it is. No one has the right to put their hands on you. No means no. You have to have consent.”
Holden said that she’s “not glad that it happened, but I’m glad that it’s had such a positive outcome.” We’re glad, as well — particularly at the viral ignominy that the alleged groper is facing.
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