When Joy Keco and Elinor Stanton went to Tuesday afternoon’s Geauga Park District’s commissioners meeting, they did not expect to be accused of assault later that day.
They had arrived at the meeting late and sat down at the end of a row in the middle of the meeting room inside the Donald W. Meyer Center, in Chardon Township. Stanton took a seat directly behind a woman they did not know.
Keco, who is a member of the Protect Geauga Parks group, as is Stanton, was so pleased with how the meeting went she went home and penned a letter to the editor. It was the first meeting in a long time she left with a “very good feeling.”
“The three park board commissioners are honestly working,” she wrote. “Mary Ruth Shumway, Mr. Bill Gertz and our newest member, Mr. Jeffrey Orndorff, are hearing that we are not coyotes or ruffians asking for the moon. We just want them to please use common sense and keep the parks conserve, preserve and protect.”
That feeling was fleeting, however.
The woman who was seated in front of them — Judy Zamlen-Spotts — later accused Keco of assaulting her after the regular meeting adjourned.
“I was viciously attacked as I was leaving the meeting,” Zamlen-Spotts said in an email sent to the Geauga County Sheriff’s Office requesting verification of the call she made to the sheriff’s office around 5:30 p.m.
“A member of the Protect Geauga Parks group grabbed me and restrained me from leaving the building,” said Zamlen-Spotts, who is also a former United States Marine. “A report was made immediately after the incident, on the same day, within 30 minutes, the time it took me to get home.”
When contacted for comment on Friday afternoon, Zamlen-Spotts answered the phone and hung up after being told it was the Geauga County Maple Leaf.
The alleged assault occurred inside the vestibule at the Meyer Center.
Keco, who is described as a petite woman, stands about 5 feet, 2 inches tall. She is in her late 70s.
Stanton is in her early 80s. She declined to speak with the Geauga County Maple Leaf, but did state she had spoken to park rangers about the alleged incident and told them Keco never touched Zamlen-Spotts.
Later Tuesday evening, Keco said she received a telephone call from a park ranger who said he needed to obtain a statement from her about an altercation after the park board meeting.
So, she met with the ranger outside her home, filled out some paperwork and told him everything that had happened.
The ranger said he would need to refer the matter to the prosecutor.
“And with that, I just fell off the deep end. I could not believe that I’m going through all of this because of some woman,” Keco said. “I just broke down and started crying, and I didn’t know whether I was coming or going. I got so scared.”
‘I Did Not Touch That Woman’
Keco told the Maple Leaf that Zamlen-Spotts made up the entire story about being assaulted.
“I never touched the woman and why did she pick on me out of the clear blue,” she said. “That’s what Nora (Elinor) and I can’t figure out. We got there late, we sat down, we didn’t cause any problems. You know, we weren’t shouting at the commissioners or banging our feet, or doing anything.”
On several occasions during the meeting, however, Keco said Zamlen-Spotts turned around and made faces at them.
“She turns around and gives us this awful scowl, like we did something wrong,” said Keco. “We hadn’t done anything. We were sitting there listening to the meeting.”
At the end of the regular meeting — and before the park commissioners adjourned into executive session — Keco said she left the room with everyone else, but not before shaking hands with park district Commissioner Bill Gertz and commending him on the meeting.
Kathy Flora, another member of Protect Geauga Parks, approached Keco in the lobby and said Zamlen-Spotts told her she intended to write a letter to the editor singling out Keco and Stanton for disrupting the meeting and saying disrespectful things about the park commissioners.
“Up until this point, I had never seen this person before or come across her, and all of a sudden she’s like there and giving me a hard time,” Keco said, adding she wonders if Zamlen-Spotts was “picking on” her because she knows who Keco is and knows she writes letters to the Maple Leaf.
Keco said she saw Zamlen-Spotts walking out of the Meyer Center and rushed to confront her.
“I put my arm up in front of her, to stop her from going out the door,” Keco explained. “I said wait a minute, I want to talk to you and she just wouldn’t even stop.
“So, I hurried and got in front of her, put my arm up on the door and I said, ‘Why are you going to write a letter to the editor about what I’m doing as far as disturbing the meeting?’ I said I didn’t disturb the meeting and furthermore I said I didn’t say anything derogatory about the commissioners; I’m really, really happy about what they’re doing today.”
Keco said Zamlen-Spotts told her if Keco didn’t let her leave the building, she would call a park ranger.
“I said, ‘Oh for heaven’s sake,’ and with that I took my arm down and let her go,” Keco said. “And she left.”
Asked if she ever laid a hand on Zamlen-Spotts, Keco said, emphatically, “I did not touch that woman. I did not touch that woman.”
Keco said she had heard Zamlen-Spotts went to the hospital and suffered a dislocated shoulder.
When told Zamlen-Spotts also reportedly suffered a concussion, Keco exclaimed, “A concussion! So, I had a baseball bat, too, huh? Oh my God, I can’t believe it.”
Witnesses?
Jim and Gayle Wohlken had just left the Meyer Center and were standing on the front walk outside the doors.
Behind them, they heard noise going on.
Gayle described the noise as people “playfully insulting each other,” expecting to hear the people break out into laughter. But that didn’t happen.
When Jim turned around, Zamlen-Spotts already was outside the doors and was turned back toward Keco and Stanton.
“She (Zamlen-Spotts) was extremely agitated and angry, and was calling them evil hags,” Jim said, adding Keco and Stanton looked “confounded by it all and kind of worried.”
Said Jim, “It sounded just like a women’s cat fight and I didn’t want to get involved in it.”
Gayle said she heard the women in the doorway — Keco and Stanton — telling Zamlen-Spotts she was “cutting dirty looks to them all through the meeting.”
Zamlen-Spotts accused the women of making snide remarks during the meeting, added Gayle.
“And then she said you are evil hags and then she said you’re a hate group,” Gayle said.
Zamlen-Spotts then “turned on her heal” and walked past them and to the parking lot, Jim said.
The Wohlkens followed behind her to the parking lot and saw her get into a Jeep and drive off.
Jim said Zamlen-Spotts was not staggering nor walking with one of her shoulders drooping as she walked to her car.
“She was walking like a strong, young woman,” he said, adding he later learned Zamlen-Spotts had served in the military. “That’s what she was walking like — a very well dressed person who was in the military.”
Both Jim and Gayle said they gave statements to park rangers on Wednesday. Neither knew any of the parties involved, although Gayle said she recognized Keco from Protect Geauga Parks meetings.
Flora said she heard a “little commotion, but it lasted such a short time.”
She added she did not see anything happening in the vestibule.
“I heard something and turned quickly, I think I had my back to it, and turned quickly to see what it was, and it seemed like a lot of people were in the vestibule and I just turned back, it was over, and just continued a conversation,” explained Flora.
Park Board President’s Response
Shumway, who is president of the park board, said right after the regular meeting adjourned, Zamlen-Spotts approached her and asked her to identify the two women that were sitting behind her. And Shumway identified Keco and Stanton.
“She said they said the most cruel, horrible things about you and Bill Gertz, and they talked the entire meeting,” Shumway said, adding Zamlen-Spotts acknowledged she turned around and glared at them.
“I said, Judy consider the source and move on,” said Shumway.
Zamlen-Spotts then spoke with park ranger Jim Kailburn, who was present at the meeting, and then left, Shumway said.
When the board came out of executive session, Shumway said she went to her car and checked her cell phone, which she had left in the vehicle.
“There was a hysterical voicemail from Judy that she had been attacked at the Meyer Center,” Shumway said. “I then raced back into the building.”
Kailburn was on the telephone getting a report from Larry McKinnon, another park ranger.
Shumway said she and Kailburn went to Zamlen-Spotts’ home in Chester Township and Zamlen-Spotts identified Keco as the woman who attacked her.
“I feel horrible. I don’t care who this happened to, I am appalled that this happened at the park district over people disagreeing,” the board president said.
Shumway also said Zamlen-Spotts had a discussion with Flora prior to the alleged attack.
“Kathy asked if she was part of the group and Judy apparently told her absolutely not and said she was disgusted by the presentation of the two women behind her all through the meeting,” Shumway said, adding Flora apologized profusely for the women’s behavior.
Flora said Friday she did ask Zamlen-Spotts if she was a member of the Protect Geauga Parks group and was told no. She also said Zamlen-Spotts did complain about Stanton and Keco’s behavior during the meeting.
“I said I thought the meeting was really quiet,” said Flora, who was seated several chairs away from Zamlen-Spotts. “I certainly didn’t hear anything.”
Zamlen-Spotts also said she was going to write a letter to the editor, added Flora.
“And then she says, ‘Who are you?’ and I said Kathy Flora, and she goes, ‘Oh, you’re her,'” Flora said, adding Zamlen-Spotts then started carrying on about something in Chesterland.
Gertz then approached Zamlen-Spotts and Flora said she excused herself and left.
Shumway admitted she did not know what happened after the board went into executive session, but said park rangers had launched an investigation.
“I do know that Judy has a dislocated shoulder and a concussion,” Shumway said, adding she was at the hospital with Zamlen-Spotts Tuesday night and spoke with the emergency room doctor.
Shumway also said Zamlen-Spotts returned to the hospital Wednesday morning and was given medication because she could not stop vomiting.
“So, she had a serious concussion,” said Shumway.
Zamlen-Spotts told Shumway she walking out the door and was grabbed, at which point Shumway said her arm became dislocated.
“Then she (Keco) grabbed the other side of her — Judy has marks on her arms, where you can see where the hand prints were on her arms. They are black and blue, and they are very, very deep,” Shumway said, adding photographs were taken.
“She was then shaken traumatically, where she remembers seeing the ceiling,” continued Shumway. “And the woman who attacked her said, ‘You’re not leaving here.’”
Shumway said there were several witnesses to the attack and that she knew some of them and gave their names to the rangers.
“These people stood and watched,” she added. “Judy said she yelled somebody get a ranger and the woman who was attacking her said, ‘These people are with me; no one’s getting you a ranger. You’re not leaving here.’”
Late Wednesday afternoon, Shumway said she was meeting with park district interim Director John Oros, legal counsel David Ondrey and Geauga County Probate Court Judge Tim Grendell to discuss what legal action could be taken.
“I have to tell you, I’m not really thrilled with some of the people from Protect Geauga Parks who are refusing to speak. That’s wrong,” she added. “And if you were a man and witnessed somebody attacking somebody else the least you should do is say stop.”
The board president also said the board would be reviewing whether to preclude certain people from attending future park board meetings.
“I have no intention of just letting this go,” she said. “I don’t care who was assaulted, I don’t care who did it; you cannot sit back and let this happen.”
The Maple Leaf has filed a public records request with the Geauga Park District for any videocamera footage recorded by videocameras Shumway said were located immediately outside the vestibule area.