CINCINNATI- Winning football teams are used to a lot of cheering.
But for the second leading tackler of the Mt. Healthy Fighting Owls, cheering has earned Anthony Cornist a penalty he doesn't think he deserves.
"It's crazy how somebody can do that to you," he said from his family's living room Monday.
When Anthony walked across the stage at his high school graduation, his family made some noise.
"It was my dream to graduate," he said.
"I'm very proud of my son," Traci Cornist said.
Apparently, so were a lot of others.
"Teachers, other students and other family members who weren't with us were also cheering for him also. He's well known," Traci said.
The excitement proved too much for the administration.
Instead of a diploma, Anthony got a letter from the principal, Marlon Styles, Jr.
"I will be holding your diploma in the main office," the letter said, "due to the excessive cheering your guests displayed during the roll call."
"I did nothing wrong except walk across the stage," Anthony said.
The school demands 20 hours of community service before he can graduate.
Those hours can be split between Anthony and his family, or the senior can perform them all himself.
"I don't understand how he's being punished for something he has no control over," Traci said. "I just thought that was ludicrous... I have no clue where the logic comes in."
Calls to the principal, the district superintendent as well as a visit to Mt. Healthy High School have all gone unanswered.
Anthony's mother says so will the penalty.
"He's definitely not doing the community service," she said. "I'm definitely not doing the community service."
That strategy could spell trouble for Anthony's game plan.
"I have a college right now that definitely needs my diploma," he said.
In some places it's fine to be proud of your graduating children -- just not too proud.
A mother in South Carolina was arrested moments after she cheered for her daughter as she walked across the stage to accept her diploma.
Shannon Cooper was handcuffed at the South Florence High School graduation ceremony and charged with disorderly conduct.
“Are ya’ll serious? Are ya’ll for real? I mean, that’s what I’m thinking in my mind,” Cooper told WPDE in Myrtle Beach. “I didn’t say anything. I was just, like, 'OK, I can’t fight the law.'“
School officials had announced before the ceremony that anyone cheering or screaming for those graduating would be escorted from the building.
Cooper's daughter, Iesha, wasn't aware her mother had been arrested until she was informed by friends while she was still participating in the festivities.
Police in Aurora, Colo., searching for suspected bank robbers stopped every car at an intersection, handcuffed all the adults and searched the cars, one of which they believed was carrying the suspect.
Police said they had received what they called a “reliable” tip that the culprit in an armed robbery at a Wells Fargo bank committed earlier was stopped at the red light.
“We didn’t have a description, didn’t know race or gender or anything, so a split-second decision was made to stop all the cars at that intersection, and search for the armed robber,” Aurora police Officer Frank Fania told ABC News.
Officers barricaded the area, halting 19 cars.
“Cops came in from every direction and just threw their car in front of my car,” Sonya Romero, one of the drivers who was handcuffed, told ABC Newsaffiliate KMGH-TV in Denver.
From there, the police went from car to car, removing the passengers and handcuffing the adults.
“Most of the adults were handcuffed, then were told what was going on and were asked for permission to search the car,” Fania said. “They all granted permission, and once nothing was found in their cars, they were un-handcuffed.”
The search lasted between an hour and a half and two hours, and it wasn’t until the final car was searched that police apprehended the suspect.
“Once officers got to his car, they found evidence that he was who they were looking for,” Fania said. “When they searched the car, they found two loaded firearms.”
The actions of the police have been met with some criticism, but Fania said this was a unique situation that required an unusual response.
“It’s hard to say what normal is in a situation like this when you haven’t dealt with a situation like this,” Fania said. “The result of the whole ordeal is that it paid off. We have arrested and charged a suspect.”
The other people who had been held at the intersection were allowed to leave once the suspect was apprehended.
GREELEY, Colo. – A Colorado woman has filed a lawsuit after agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the ATF, entered her home without a warrant and threatened her and her 8-year old-son while looking for a previous tenant who had left the address more than a year earlier.
According to the filing from Linda Griego, it was on June 15, 2010, when officers with the ATF – as part of the Regional Anti-Gang Enforcement Task Force – violently entered her home without a warrant, handcuffed and pointed guns at her and her son, Colby Frias.
“They had multiple machine pistols pointed at my son. I could see the laser sites on his body and he began to freak out. While I was cuffed I had to calm him down while the officers broke down his bedroom door,” she said.
Her legal action is against the Greeley Police Department and the ATF for illegally entering the home without a warrant.
David Lane, Griego’s attorney, told WND that to this day the agency still has not produced a warrant authorizing it to enter her home. He said Frias continues to suffer nightmares about the events of that day.
A couple of months ago, Frias had a friend over to the house, and the family had ordered pizza. When it arrived, the delivery driver gave a loud knock on the door.
“It scared my son so bad he jumped over the couch to hide. This was two years later, and it still bothered him,” Griego said.
In the months following the incident, Frias was so scared he had to sleep with his mother.
“Here he is an 8-year-old boy, and he is sleeping with mom again,” she said.
In the months prior to the incident, local authorities had been to Griego’s house several times looking for Angela Hernandez-Nicholson, a former resident.
Each time, Griego told authorities she was no longer living at the address and even provided them with information on how to locate Nicholson.
“I tell them to contact social services because she is getting government benefits. She is on Section 8 housing, if the state is paying her rent, they should be able to find her,” Griego said. “I have even seen her at Wal-Mart all the time. How hard can it be for authorities to track this woman down?”
Griego said when the officers arrived on the day of the incident around 6:30 a.m. she was in the shower getting ready for work with the radio on while her son was sleeping in his bedroom. She had just come out of a nasty divorce, and a restraining order was placed on her ex-husband.
“I heard the knocking and rushed out of the shower dressed only in a towel. I went to the window at the front and saw a man knocking on the door, but I could not make out who he was,” Griego said. “I then went around to the back where they were also knocking. My first concern was for the safety of my son, and what if my ex-husband and friends had come by.”
She then saw one of the officers turn, and she made out part of the word SWAT on the back of his uniform.
“At that point I realized everything would be OK, since we had done nothing wrong. I told the officers I had just come out of the shower and to give me a minute to get dressed.”
After getting dressed, Griego told them she was coming. Once she unlocked the door, the officer forced the door open, causing it to strike her.
According to Griego, she was then violently grabbed and yanked outside where she was pushed up against the house and handcuffed by authorities.
“They had weapons drawn and were pointing them at me. I begged them not to go in because my son was in there.”
When they dragged her back into the house, she saw the officers surrounding Frias with their laser sights pointed at him.
“I will never forget the fear I saw in my young son’s eyes that day. Having guns pointed at you would be terrifying enough for an adult, let alone an 8-year-old boy,” she said. “As a mother, I felt so helpless, since I was handcuffed and had guns on me as well.”
The officers kept calling her Angela, and she kept telling them she was Amanda. It was only after emptying her purse and seeing her ID they realized she was not the person they were after.
Authorities then told Griego she did not match Angela’s description anyway, noting that the woman they were after was in her 50s.
She said another concern is that because of the incident, Frias is now afraid of police officers.
“If he ever has a time where he needs a police officer, I’m afraid he may not seek help, because he is still traumatized by what happened. He is afraid of police officers,” she said.
Sgt. Susan West with the Greeley police told WND they were not able to confirm if Griego had told officers Angela did not live at the address or not.
She said the department investigated the incident, and their involvement was “minimal.” She could not elaborate further, she said, due to the ongoing litigation.
Griego said after they released her, an officer even admitted that they knew that she was living at the residence and even had a restraining order against her ex-husband.
“He said, ‘You are Amanda, and you have a restraining order against your ex-husband.” If they knew all of that, then why did they break in and threaten us?”
“What is frustrating is that to this day no one from the police or the ATF has even bothered to contact her and apologize for their mistake,” Griego said.
“The last thing they told me was, ‘Well I hope you have a better day than you’ve had so far.’ And then they left,” he said.
In fact, the officer chastised Griego for not opening the door sooner.
“I waited just long enough to throw some clothes on and my hair was still wet, but the officer told me I should have opened the door immediately, regardless of whether I was dressed or not and said I could face consequences for making them wait.”
Last year, the Indiana Supreme Court ruled that “there is no right to reasonably resist unlawful entry by police officers.” In issuing its ruling the court said public policy disfavors such a right.
The court admitted it was overturning hundreds of years of law going back to the Magna Carta as well as U.S. Supreme Court decisions. The court dismissed the decisions, saying, “We believe however that a right to resist an unlawful police entry into a home is against public policy and is incompatible with modern Fourth Amendment jurisprudence.”
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