A woman who was physically assaulted by a man for refusing his advances agreed not to press charges if he volunteered to sit by an intersection while wearing a dunce cap and sign that read "I beat women. Honk if I'm a scumbag."
Tampa, Fla. resident Alisha Hessler was fresh off a night out with friends, who had invited Gabriel Urena to join them. During the car ride home, Hessler, 20, claims that Urena started coming on to her. When his advances escalated to groping, she punched him. He responded by punching her in the face several times, leaving her with a broken nose and concussion.
She filed a police report the next morning before being taken to a local hospital for treatment. However, something led her to Urena's Facebook page, where she saw a remorseful post regarding the incident. "I seriously need change," he wrote.
Hessler promised not to press charges if Urena agreed to sit by a busy intersection for eight hours with a dunce cap atop his head, holding the sign. Faced with that or jail, Urena chose the former.
Her decision has left advocates for battered women like Mindy Murphy incensed. "The fact that we've got a guy sitting in a dunce cap with a sign on the side of the road really is trivializing a serious issue," she told ABC Action News.
Hessler didn't feel that a year in jail would teach Urena anything, and has reportedly dodged follow-up calls from Tampa police.
[via Gawker and ABC Action News]
