JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A local mother who was arrested for battery on a law enforcement officer will spend 120 days in jail.
Erika McGriff, 39, pleaded guilty to that charge on Tuesday.
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The arrest happened on October 7, outside McGriff’s daughter’s school. The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office said McGriff had allegedly left her car running in an intersection.
JSO said she struck Officer Randy Holton first and bit him, which led to her arrest.
“If you violently resist our officers, if you punch them, if you bite them you will be arrested,” Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters said during a news conference on October 10.
RELATED: Jacksonville sheriff announces agency’s first arrests for violations of Florida’s new ‘Halo Law’
During her arrest, a crowd gathered and this led to JSO’s first arrests under Florida’s “Halo Law,” which establishes a 25-foot buffer zone, within which, it is illegal to harass, threaten or impede officers or first responders while they perform their official duties.
Anita Gibson, 60, and Jasmine Jefferson, 37, were arrested for violation of that law for interfering with McGriff’s arrest, Waters announced at the October 10 news conference.
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Their cases are still moving through the Duval County court system.
A week after McGriff’s arrest, nationally known civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump spoke out on her behalf at his own news conference in Jacksonville.
“The type of force used on Erika McGriff, the chokeholds, the hair grabbing, the being punched with closed fists in the face, having a knee put on her neck, should be reserved for armed and dangerous criminals who are a threat to the public and our safety, but not for mothers who are double parked to go pick up their daughter from school so she won’t get rained on,” Crump said at that time.
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In addition to her jail sentence, McGriff also has to write a letter of apology to Officer Holton, complete a batterers intervention program, and 50 hours of community service.
Of McGriff’s arrest, JSO released a statement on its social media pages, which read, in part:
“We are pleased that Erika McGriff voluntarily pled guilty to Battery on a Law Enforcement Officer. Her adjudication as a felon and jail sentence reflect the reality of this incident: that Ms. McGriff violently attacked the victim officer once she recognized that she would be arrested.”
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