On Saturday morning, Alex Bozarjian was covering the Enmarket Savannah Bridge Run for WSAV-TV in Savannah when one of the runners slapped her on the butt—while she was live and on the air. The pervert was subsequently identified as Thomas Callaway, a smokeless tobacco salesman and church youth leader from nearby Statesboro.
The Savannah Sports Council, which organizes the race, struck fast and hard, banning Callaway from ever taking part in any of its races again. But that may be the least of his worries. Late Monday, Bozarjian filed a police report. She contends that Callaway committed sexual battery.
Savannah police initially told media they were ready to help Bozarjian if she wanted to proceed, and today they informed Canadian Running that she had filed a report. The report says Callaway called Bozarjian’s place of work Saturday evening and left a message apologizing for the incident. He called again Sunday with the message that he planned to apologize to her in person.
According to Bozarjian, the incident was actually far worse than it looked on air. He smacked and grabbed her butt in the same motion, saying she felt “a sharp sting” that caused her to briefly pause her report. The report also claims that Callaway made at least two attempts to contact her at WSAV in hopes of apologizing to her.
Bozarjian appeared on “CBS This Morning” to discuss the incident. Watch here.
Bozarjian said Callaway “took my power”—and she has every intention of taking it back. She was unnerved that Callaway “helped himself to a part of my body.” She added that when Callaway tried to reach out to her, he claimed he didn’t mean to hurt her. That’s baloney; the video clearly shows Callaway knew what he was doing.
Sexual battery is only a misdemeanor in Georgia, punishable by up to a year in jail and a $5,000 fine. He needs to serve it all. I realize this sounds heavy-handed. But consider two tweets sent in response to this incident from people who claimed this was no big deal.
I quadruple-dog dare these gentlemen—a term that must be used here in its loosest possible sense—to say that to the face of Bozarjian or any other woman who had this happen to them. Those tweets exhibit the same mentality that Callaway displayed today. The signal must go out that this is definitely not a joking matter. Misdemeanor or not, this is behavior that can’t be tolerated in any society.