Disney Declassified: Tales of Real Life Disney Scandals, Sex, Accidents and Deaths (15 page)

The dispute ensued when Victoria accused Aimee of jumping ahead and cutting the line. As the story goes from Victoria’s testimony, a ride attendant let several people in front of her and her daughter at the Mad Tea Party ride. Victoria said she tried to get back to her original place, and as she did, so did Aimee with the four children in her group. Victoria claims as Aimee tried to push her way through the line, she elbowed, bumped and kicked backwards as she passed Victoria and cut ahead. Aimee denied this and said that Victoria was the violent one. As the two women made their way onto the ride, Victoria continued to voice her displeasure towards Aimee, quite loudly. She allegedly started yelling and cursing and even shoved Aimee’s seven- year-old daughter (Victoria was at Walt Disney World with her church group, mind you). As the two bruisers took their teacups, they continued to argue. They were allowed to enter the ride, only after a cast member separated them.

Aimee put a pair of her children into the teacup, then Victoria allegedly kicked her from behind and grabbed the back of her hair. Next thing Aimee says, Victoria is pummeling her. She hit her in the head with her purse, and then she started using her fists and slammed her head into the ride. The beating continued until Victoria was finally separated from Aimee. Disney security was called, as were the police.

After filing the police report, authorities originally let Victoria go back home to Alabama, as they thought it was a minor scuffle. After Aimee went to the doctor and was diagnosed with a concussion, a herniated disk in her cervical spine and post-traumatic seizures, police issued a felony warrant for Victoria’s arrest. Authorities had her brought back to Florida to face the charges. In April of 2008, the case went to trial. Victoria was facing a charge of felony aggravated battery and battery. The trial had both sides denying any wrongdoing. Victoria said she didn’t push Aimee’s child, curse, or even strike Aimee. She claimed she only grabbed her hair, as she was trying to get her attention. The defense claimed Aimee exaggerated her medical claims in an effort to eventually sue Disney and score a payday; something she did and subsequently lost.

Victoria’s team said that Aimee was actually the aggressor and provoked the attack. She is the one with a history of aggressive behavior, particularly at her child’s school. As the trial progressed, witnesses for both sides painted two different scenarios of the same scene. In a typical she-said vs. she-said case, or David vs. Goliath case, the prosecution emphasized Victoria was 5’10 and 230 lbs. and Aimee was 5’5. When it was all said and done, the jury found Victoria guilty of the lesser charge, battery, a misdemeanor. Victoria was sentenced to ninety days in jail (she received credit for thirty-two days served), nine months of probation, community service, and anger management courses.

In 1988, Bobby Brown (the entertainer and former Mr. Whitney Houston, not the cosmetics company mogul) released an uber-successful album entitled,
Don’t Be Cruel
. In April of 1995, he didn’t heed his own advice and was arrested for aggravated battery and disorderly conduct at Walt Disney World’s Pleasure Island. 

Twenty-six-year-old Bobby and his entourage were at the nightclub Mannequin one evening. He, along with another patron, were vying for a young lady's attention when things got out of control.

Bobby told the other suitor, thirty-seven-year-old Neil, to scram, as he was talking with this tenderoni (a song also featured in his album from 1988). Words were exchanged and eventually so were punches. The next thing Neil remembers, he was hit in the face. He dropped to the ground and was repeatedly beaten, even hit in the head with a glass bottle while he lay helpless on the club floor. Police arrived, as did an ambulance to take Neil to the hospital where he received six staples to close a head wound and another eight stitches to reattach his ear.

With the situation under control, police told Bobby, his bodyguard, Gary, and his publicist, Travis, to have a seat outside the club so they could get a handle on the situation. The entourage took a seat, but Bobby would not; he became hostile and belligerent with police. The police placed him in the back of their police car to try and keep him under control. Once inside the car, he started to hit his head against the window in an act of defiance.

He next asked police if he could go to the bathroom. They were in the process of taking his two buddies into custody and informed him that once they were finished escorting his pals into another car, he could go. Well, Bobby, must have really needed to go, as he proceeded to pee all over the back of the police car; the seat, the floor and all over the cage that separates the front of the car from the back. He also gave the police a little autograph to remember him by. He wrote the word “fuck” on the backseat. Something he clearly wasn’t going to be doing that night, as his antics just solidified himself a trip to jail. The three men posted bail and went back to spend another two days at the Yacht Club resort under assumed names, as the three of them were banned from Disney property after their incident. 

November of 1996 rolled around and the three men were set to go on trial. At the last minute, Bobby’s charges were dropped. Neil refused to testify against Bobby as the two men came to terms on a settlement deal. Neil originally sued Bobby for $6.6 million, and in the end, Bobby paid roughly $2 million to settle and be free from the case (his two friends pleaded no contest and were fined for their actions). That was an expensive trip to Disney, especially for a married man who didn’t bring his family.

The EPCOT food and wine festival treats Disney guests to a unique and tasty tour of culinary cuisines and libations from around the globe. In 2013, one of the event’s attendees appeared to have enjoyed the alcohol portion a bit more than your average person. Twenty-three-year-old Austin, from Pensacola, Florida, a 2012 Naval Academy graduate, went on a tour of his own. A tour that became a mobile assault of EPCOT cast members.

Austin, already feeling the effects of some of that festival booze, entered a backstage office area near Innoventions in Future World. He encountered Michael, who was on the receiving end of a punch to the face from Austin. As he worked his way through the area, Austin then came upon a cart to move merchandise around with. He commandeered the cart, when Timothy tried to stop him; Timothy too received a punch in the face. Being an equal opportunity offender, Austin next grabbed a 3-foot PVC pipe and struck Jessica in the face and neck with it. After his third assault he was apprehended not initially by Disney security but by two other servicemen. Thomas, a Navy Airman, and Jay, a Marine Private, were at EPCOT separately from Austin but saw him, and the two immediately tackled him to the ground.

After a few more squabbles with the duo, and a continuing stream of drunken rants, sheriff’s deputies arrested him in front of Club Cool in Future World. Austin was charged with battery, aggravated battery, and felony battery. Austin’s case is still pending

The next few stories certainly don’t feature people’s most prudent or logical behavior. In October of 1982, Justin of York, Pennsylvania, was arrested for playing with a hand grenade at the entrance to Walt Disney World. When approached by deputies, he informed them the grenade was deactivated. He said he bought the dummy grenade at an Army/Navy store. Taking no precautions, the bomb squad seized the grenade and dismantled it. Inside, they found it was filled with sodium chloride tablets. The addition of another chemical and it could have become “live.” Justin was promptly arrested.

Another tale of danger happened in May of 2013, when a Floridian left his loaded gun on a ride at the Animal Kingdom.

Forty-four-year-old Angelo realized after he left the Dinosaur ride that he was without his heat. He went back to the ride and learned a woman and her grandson got on the ride and found the .38 semi-automatic on the seat and turned it in to Disney. Angelo did have a permit for his weapon, but obviously Disney has a no-weapons policy on premises. When interviewed by authorities, he said he thought the security checkpoints at the entrance to the parks were only for bombs.

Bombs at Disney are no laughing matter. For a German tourist, he figured it would just be easier to notify the bag checkers at the front of the park that he was in possession of a bomb; two, actually. In November 2009, thirty-seven-year-old Jochen from Leipzig, Germany, told employees very casually that he had two bombs in his backpack. The cast members questioned him again about his statement to make sure they (and he) understood what he was saying to them; he reiterated it. In came the deputies and the bomb-sniffing dog. Turns out there were no explosives and Jochen got his trip to America extended with a stay in Orange County Jail.

The Disney bomb and gun brigade isn’t exclusive to men; sometimes even grandma gets in on the action. Sixty-three-year-old grandmother Mary Ann of Nickelson, Pennsylvania, was arrested in December of 2007. It appears back home, she lives alone and she keeps her .32 Berretta with her at all times. She didn’t realize she was still packing when she tried to enter the Magic Kingdom with her loaded gun, locked blade knife and a pair of scissors in her bag. Mary Ann was arrested and charged with carrying a concealed weapon inside the theme park.

As most visitors to Walt Disney World or Disneyland know, Disney’s security officers don’t carry guns. In this instance, it was probably a good thing a Disney security guard didn’t have access to a firearm. Parl worked as a security guard at Walt Disney World from 1996 until late 2004. He probably would have worked there longer, except he devised a plan and reached out to an illegal gun dealer to have his current wife’s ex-husband murdered over a child custody battle.

The murder for hire plot started to unravel as the ex-con Parl got involved with was being investigated for illegal gun sales. Parl paid $2,000 upfront and after the ex-husband was killed, he would pay another $2,000. If it wasn’t for the ongoing federal investigation into the movement of illegal guns, authorities said this killing would have happened.

One afternoon, shortly after the initial payment was made the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Osceola County Sheriff's Office and Disney security went over to Disney’s Fort Wilderness Campground and arrested Parl. In 2005, Parl’s murder for hire got him a conviction on first degree premeditated murder and he was sentenced to seven years in prison.

Another story of creative police work with Disney security in tow happened in August of 1995. Jerry, forty-nine years old and from Brick, New Jersey, entered his ex-girlfriend's house while she was on the treadmill. He snuck up behind her and shot her in cold blood. Leaving her for dead, he then fled the state and eventually landed at Walt Disney World’s All Star Resort. Jerry stayed for a few days and registered the room under his real name.

After a few days of odd behavior and suspicious conversations with some of the cast members at the hotel, Disney security alerted the sheriff's department about their shady guest. The sheriff's department thought Jerry was in fact the suspect wanted in New Jersey on a homicide. Two sheriff’s detectives went undercover and dressed as maintenance workers for the resort. They approached their man and arrested him on the charges back in New Jersey.

Grandmothers, moms, celebrities, military men, and Disney employees have all lost control at Mickey’s house. So it’s not surprising when kids do as well. The last two stories are some of the more notable scuffles with some underage park-goers.

The Wide World of Sports Complex at Walt Disney World features numerous sports fields, clubhouses, and stadiums for just about every sport imaginable. The facility has been the spring training home of the Atlanta Braves and Tampa Bay Buccaneers. When the pros aren’t suiting up at the facility, the amateurs are. Various amateur youth teams descend on the facility for tournaments and championships throughout the year. Each December, the Pop Warner youth football Super Bowl is held at the Wide World of Sports Complex.

In 2007, three teams didn’t get in enough hitting on the field, that they started to hit each other off the field. The teams, two from Hawaii and one from Baltimore, were staying at the same resort. Late one evening, a brawl between the three teams broke out around 1:00
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. in a resort arcade. The Orange County Sheriff’s department sent six units to the scene along with Disney security. By around 2:20
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. in the morning, the situation was under control with one boy taken to the hospital with a broken nose.

No arrests were made, but about thirty minutes later, over seventy families were given the boot from their hotels. Each family received written notice from Disney that they were to immediately vacate their rooms and the premises. The families had twenty minutes to pack up and leave, as Disney has a zero-tolerance policy for violence. If they didn’t leave the premises, the Sheriff’s office would be called again to remove them. Begrudgingly, all the families met in the parking lot to leave. Most thought Disney handled the eviction poorly and rashly. Through a cavalry of taxicabs, the families made their way over to a local Holiday Inn at 4:15
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As Disney explained, "This was unfortunate, but with thousands of guests staying at the resort, we have to maintain a safe environment for everyone," said Jacob DiPietre, a spokesman for Walt Disney World. “All participants were made aware of our strict zero-tolerance policy regarding any physical disturbances. Any teams involved in fighting are subject to disqualification and eviction. We were in direct consultation with both Pop Warner officials and law enforcement throughout the course of the event."  

As the Disney website outlines, group packages include a provision that if "one or more person(s)" in a party takes part in a violent act, everyone will be forced to leave.

The last story to close out a tumultuous chapter didn’t feature a youth sports team but a few youths who assaulted guests and police like it was a sport. If you were in the vicinity of Space Mountain at Walt Disney World on Sunday, May 20, 2007, hopefully you didn’t encounter the five knuckleheads from Long Island that went around spitting on and cursing at anyone within their reach