Tourist's crime? Toting bookmark

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: EEkid () aol com
Date: September 17, 2004 3:42:00 PM EDT
To: dave () farber net
Subject: Tourist's crime? Toting bookmark

See the link for a picture of the deadly bookmark.

http://www.sptimes.com/2004/09/17/Hillsborough/ 
Tourist_s_crime_Totin.shtml


Tourist's crime? Toting bookmark
TIA screeners saw the teacher's weighted bookmark as a weapon, and she  
was arrested. The charges were dropped, but a fine is unresolved.

By JAY CRIDLIN, Times Staff Writer
Published September 17, 2004

------------------------------------------------------------------------ 
--------
 TAMPA - For the past month, Kathryn Harrington has stared down the  
possibility of a criminal trial, a $10,000 fine and the stigma of being  
deemed a security risk at Tampa International Airport.

The reason? She had a bookmark with her as she passed through airport  
security screening.

"It was a bookmark," Harrington said. "It's not a weapon. I could not  
understand why I was being handcuffed and put into a police car. I  
cried for hours."

A month after airport police arrested her on a charge of carrying a  
concealed weapon - the bookmark - it appears Harrington, a 52-year-old  
special education teacher from Laurel, Md., could be clear of a  
potential $10,000 fine.

A spokeswoman for the Transportation Security Administration said  
Thursday the agency, a branch of the Department of Homeland Security,  
is likely to drop Harrington's case as early as next week.

"I think at this point we've decided not to pursue a civil penalty,"  
said TSA spokeswoman Lauren Stover. "But it's not a decision that can  
be made on the spot. These are things that require an investigation."

Harrington and her college-aged sons were flying home from a vacation  
in Orlando and Sarasota Aug. 17 when airport screeners found the  
bookmark - an 8.5-inch green leather strap with lead weights at each  
end - in Harrington's purse on Aug. 17. She'd carried the $9.99  
bookmark on several flights since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist  
attacks, even through Tampa International Airport, but screeners had  
never noticed it.

This time, screeners thought the bookmark resembled a weighted police  
weapon, known as a sap or slungshot, used to knock suspects  
unconscious. Stover said screeners did the right thing by showing the  
item to airport police.

"They probably felt that this item looked fairly dangerous," she said.  
"It looked like a bludgeoning type of weapon that could potentially  
harm someone."

Harrington was questioned about the bookmark, then handcuffed and  
driven to an airport police holding cell.

"I pretty much cried throughout the whole thing," said Harrington, a  
Sunday school teacher with a master's degree from Johns Hopkins  
University.

According to the TSA's official prohibited items list, anyone who  
brings any banned item to a screening checkpoint, even accidentally,  
may be criminally or civilly prosecuted. Even items that are not  
specifically listed, but could be considered dangerous, are illegal.

Harrington was not arrested, but she was charged with carrying a  
concealed weapon - a first-degree misdemeanor punishable by as much as  
a year in jail and a $1,000 fine.

Earlier this month, the Hillsborough State Attorney's Office declined  
to prosecute the case against Harrington. Notes on why the case was not  
pursued were unavailable this week, because the state attorney's office  
was closed through Thursday in preparation for Hurricane Ivan, said  
Assistant State Attorney Pam Bondi.

Even without a criminal charge, though, Harrington still faced a civil  
fine. The TSA's top fine of $10,000 is usually reserved for those  
carrying the most dangerous weapons - a bomb, for instance, or a loaded  
shotgun - but Harrington still could have been fined hundreds or  
thousands of dollars.

The case will be closed, Stover said, as soon as TSA's lawyers give the  
final say-so.

"We have an obligation to carry this full-circle," Stover said. "It  
will be sometime next week before all the paperwork is processed to  
drop the case."

Harrington's attorney, W.F. "Casey" Ebsary Jr. of Tampa, said he hopes  
travelers will take Harrington's case as a cautionary tale.

"Maybe the most valuable thing is that people find out that this is  
going on, and it won't happen anymore," he said.

Harrington, who said her friends and family reacted to the case with  
"jaw-dropping incredulity," said she'll no longer fly with her weighted  
bookmarks.

"You can be sure that my bookmark will not be in my purse," she said.  
"That will not be in my purse ever again when I fly."

Jay Cridlin can be reached at cridlin () sptimes com or 813 661-2442.

[Last modified September 17, 2004, 02:30:55]

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