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Cell phone photo tattles on mom

A Spring Hill woman is charged after the photo, taken by her 18-year-old daughter, shows her sitting on the teen.

By JONATHAN ABEL
Published October 1, 2006

SPRING HILL - What do you do when your mother sits on you?

For one Spring Hill teenager, the answer came easily: Pull out your cell phone and call for help. And while you're at it, snap a photo.

Early Friday, just before 2 a.m., Tiffanie Haynes, 18, and her mother, Theodosia Haynes, 37, were deep in a shouting match.

According to the Hernando County Sheriff's Office, Tiffanie didn't like that her mother was intruding into her personal business.

The shouting escalated.

Theodosia followed her daughter into her bedroom and pinned Tiffanie on the bed by sitting on top of her.

Somehow, Tiffanie managed to get out her cell phone and call 911. Then she snapped a few photos on her phone to document what her mother was doing.

She shared them with Deputy Michael Stegner when he arrived.

Theodosia was arrested and charged with misdemeanor domestic battery. For her part, she told the deputy that she was just restraining her daughter so that the fight wouldn't get worse.

With cell phones and camera phones everywhere, this domestic battery case may be a harbinger of a day when nothing goes undocumented, not even crime.

Or maybe not.

"This is the first time that I've seen a picture taken on a phone for a domestic battery," said Sheriff's spokeswoman Deputy Donna L. Black. "Until we get more cases where we get results with people taking pictures on their cell phones, I don't know what evidentiary value there would be in the courts."

Robert Diemer, a professor of Criminal Justice at Saint Leo University and a 28-year veteran of Florida law enforcement, called this an anomaly, but a positive one nonetheless.

"Normally, nine times out of 10, there's no camera and no video," he said. "Now that you have the advent of a phone that will permanently store it, I think that's great. . . . My hat goes off to that young lady."

Jonathan Abel can be reached at jabel@sptimes.com or 352 754-6114.

[Last modified September 30, 2006, 21:44:33]