Here’s a story to make you feel terrible on a Wednesday: a warrant has been issued by Atlanta police for the arrest of WWE’s Heath Slater regarding an alleged incident at a WrestleMania 27 after-party in 2011. Described as “simple assault and battery” by a WWE spokesperson, nothing came of the accusation when it was made three years ago, but I guess things have finally worked their way through the legal system and are once again coming to light.
If you don’t remember what happened, here’s a recap from The Atlanta Journal-Constitution written in 2011.
According to a police report, the alleged assault against [Allied Barton Security Services employee Corinne] Oliver occurred between 4 a.m. and 5 a.m. April 4 at the Hyatt Regency Atlanta on Peachtree Street. The day before, an estimated 70,000 fans attended WrestleMania 27 at the Georgia Dome.
Oliver’s attorney, Jackie Patterson, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Thursday that his client was working security at the hotel during an “after-party,” trying to keep fans from wrestlers.
“She basically said he [Slater] approached her and asked her to go to his room,” Patterson said. “She said no. He started telling her she was pretty and those type things. The next thing you know she was in a chokehold, and he was dragging her and bending her backward, trying to get her on the elevator to his room. She violently had to struggle to get his arm from around her neck.”
In the police report, Oliver said she had to “twist her body to get loose, leaving her with back pains.” The report describes the incident as a possible “simple assault/battery.”
Oliver didn’t call 911, her attorney said, but instead immediately contacted her Allied Barton supervisor, who was on duty at the hotel at the time of the incident. But after months of inaction, the attorney said Oliver decided to file a police report on June 22, nearly three months after the incident.
“She was waiting on her supervisors to report it to the police and see what they were going to do, but they [supervisors] kept telling her, ‘We’re handling this and we’ll get it resolved,’ ” the attorney said. “When she never got it resolved that’s when she took it upon herself to go to the police.”
We’ll keep you updated, and we’ll try not to do that thing where how much we like the guy’s work clouds our response to serious, real-life stuff like this.
