A 61-year-old Arecibo resident, Richard Solomon Keeling, was jailed after being charged with assault, disturbing the peace and use of violence or intimidation against public authority for insulting a police sergeant as he ate at a fast-food restaurant in Arecibo, Puerto Rico. According to a Puerto Rico Police Bureau report, the incident happened on November 5 at the Church’s Chicken on the shoulder of PR-129, kilometer 1.2, in Arecibo.
Sergeant Alex Novoa González was eating when Keeling approached and directed offensive words at him and at his work, the report said. He was told several times to stop but ignored the warnings, and was arrested. The case was consulted with the on-duty prosecutor, who ordered the three charges filed.
It went before Judge Alba I. Calderón Cestero of the Arecibo Court of First Instance, who found probable cause for arrest after hearing the evidence and set a global bail of $20,000, which Keeling did not post. He was booked into the Bayamón jail until a preliminary hearing on November 23. Lieutenant Edgar Castro Rivera, an aide to the Hatillo district commander, investigated. The charges were filed on the afternoon of Friday, November 6.