Police Report Details Activity That Led To Panthers Cheerleaders' Arrest

Tampa, FL -- The public release of a Florida police report on the arrest last year of two Carolina Panthers cheerleaders gave new life Wednesday to a story that launched untold numbers of watercooler conversations and late-night talk show monologues. Witness statements contained in the report were the basis for allegations that the cheerleaders appeared to be having sex in a bathroom stall before getting in a fight with patrons at a Tampa bar on Nov. 6. The report was posted Wednesday on the Web site The Smoking Gun, which obtained it through an open records request. The Hillsborough County, Fla., prosecutors office subsequently released a copy to The Associated Press. Angela Keathley, 26, and Victoria Renee Thomas, 20, were dismissed from the TopCats cheerleading squad following their arrest, which made national headlines. The story was a sensation and generated record levels of Internet traffic for many media outlets that covered the women's arrests. The Charlotte lawyer who represents Thomas reiterated Wednesday her denial of any sexual activity. "My client has previously denied that any sexual activity ever took place in that bathroom stall and she denies it again," Pete Anderson said Wednesday. "The sex never happened. The police reports released on Wednesday were based upon witness statements that are simply not credible. We believe a number of other witness statements were taken where the individuals denied that the cheerleaders were having sex." Anderson said Keathley and her lawyer joined in the statement. He said a Tampa police spokesperson told a local television reporter in the days after the story broke that the women may not have been having sex. And he referred to another witness, Jennifer Chaconas, who told The Charlotte Observer two days after the incident that she was in the bathroom and believed the cheerleaders were not having sex. Anderson said his client is prepared to admit the charges that resulted from the incident, of giving a false name to police and causing harm to another. Those charges are still pending in Hillsborough County Court in Florida, where Thomas has entered a plea of not guilty. Keathley pleaded guilty to charges of disorderly conduct and resisting arrest Jan. 19 and was given six months probation. According to the police report taken at the Banana Joe's club, witness Amanda Miner told Tampa Police Officer Richard Harrell that "defendant Keathley was standing on the toilet and her head was over the stall wall. She observed Keathley's facial expressions and saw her eyes rolling back into her head. Miner said that Keathley was moaning as a person does during sexual activity." Two additional witnesses told Harrell they saw Keathley's head above the wall of the stall and heard sounds indicative of sexual activity. In her statement, Melissa Holden, the woman Thomas is accused of assaulting, told police that Thomas' "feet were facing inwards toward Keathley's body. Holden stated that Keathley was making facial expressions and noises (that) were consistent with that of a person engaged in sexual activity." Holden said that some of the women waiting in line for the bathroom were verbally abusing Keathley and Thomas as they exited the bathroom and that even though she said nothing, Thomas "punched her in the face once and in the chest once, knocking her back." In his report, Harrell wrote that Keathley and Thomas were "intoxicated, out of control and difficult to deal with." Thomas and Keathley had traveled to Tampa on their own for the Panthers' road game against the Buccaneers. They were fired from the cheerleading squad for violating a code that bans conduct embarassing to the team. Holden filed a $15,000 civil suit against Thomas in December; Thomas has counter-sued for defamation, Anderson said. The lawyer said he believes the story will die down once there is a "focus on the facts instead of the apparent male fantasies that the initial story touched upon."