A 74-year-old spent the night in jail after she refused security
officers' efforts to check her at Palm Beach International Airport and
then shoved a deputy, authorities said Thursday.
Elena Reichman, a Holocaust survivor who lives west of Boca Raton, is
charged with felony battery on a law enforcement officer. She was
released from jail after posting a $3,000 bond at 5 a.m. Thursday. It
was her first arrest, state records show.
Confrontational With Other Passengers
Other passengers next to her complained of her flatulence, and Mrs.
Reichman became irritable.
Reichman Fights With TSA Screeners
The woman set off alarms, and when told she needed a private
screening she became belligerent. "She refused to remove the
items from her pockets," Koshetz said.
Officials took her to a private area away from other passengers and
called Palm Beach County Sheriff's Deputy Margaret Picerno. When
Picerno, tried to calm Reichman down, "She started
screaming and grabbed the arms of the deputy and shoved her."
Reichman was arrested.
The Daughter Says The Mother Was Beaten
Reichman's daughter, Davira Bareli, said the deputy of acting
irrationally with her mother. "The woman deputy pushed my mother and
said my mother pushed her," Bareli said.
Lawyers Gather For Coming Lawsuit
Max Rothman, chief executive officer of the Alliance on Aging in
Miami, said law enforcement should be gentle with the elderly
population.
Florida States Attorney
State attorney's office said "Defendants like
Reichman who have no prior record usually go through pretrial
intervention, and she would be cleared of the charge."
She Was A Survivor
She spent four years with her parents, six siblings and about 500
other people in a forced-labor camp in a Romanian castle during World
War II. She described how she was forced to lower her underwear to her
ankles, a female Nazi whipped her while two males ogled her trembling
buttocks!!
