The wife of a Georgia county commissioner faces simple battery and disorderly conduct charges after she apparently thought it was a good idea to pour soda over a journalist's head at a budget meeting last Friday in Chattooga County, according to The Washington Post. Part of the encounter drenching AllOnGeorgia reporter Casie Bryant was caught on camera, the newspaper reported.
Abbey Winters, the wife of Chattooga County Sole Commissioner Jason Winters, was identified as the woman who allegedly committed the odd choice of offense, which witnesses said appeared to be unprovoked, according to the Post. “You deserve that (expletive),” a woman The Summerville News identified as Mrs. Winters said in footage of the incident. Another voice could be heard saying “she brought it on herself” in the footage.
Laura Arden, an English teacher at Chattooga High School who attended the meeting, ended up defending the reporter, according to local news station WTVC. “I said ‘nobody deserves that,’” Arden told the station. Even the offender's husband nodded his head when someone was heard on video saying: "There you go. I'm sick of it."
Abbey Winters told Summerville police she “accidentally” doused the reporter “after stumbling/tripping near her,” according to a police report The Washington Post obtained. Her husband, who seemed to flip-flop after the incident, backed his wife up and said the dousing was an accident but Bryant “deserved what happened to her,” according to WZQZ. The radio station, which had a representative at the meeting, reported that Bryant didn’t respond and that she simply collected her belongings and left. Public Works Director Joe Reed walked Abbey Winters to a private office, WZQZ reported.