By Shavonne Potts
spotts@salisburypost.com
Three words describe how 16-year-old Avalon Bingamon felt the night she was arrested.
“I was scared.”
A week ago, the teenager and her father, Damon Bingamon, were placed in the Rowan County Detention Center following Damon’s arrest earlier the same evening.
She’s a good kid, her father says. But how does a good kid get arrested?
The two were having dinner around 8 p.m. April 6 with a family friend at Baylee’s Steakhouse inside the Salisbury Mall.
Damon was in the restroom when he says he accidentally broke a mirror, which was valued at $40.
He was charged with misdemeanor vandalism.
Damon was placed in jail under a $300 bond. Family friend George Ernwine bailed him out a few hours later.
Damon, 40, says he has no complaint against Salisbury Police Officer M.E. Lawing, who initially arrested him.
He does however, have a complaint against what he considers ill treatment inside the Rowan County Detention Center.
Damon said his cell was cold, so he asked for a blanket. He was told to shut up, he said.
“I asked for a blanket three times,” he said.
He then asked for a cup so he could get water from the sink. He was again told to be quiet.
When Damon was released, he said he wanted to file a complaint about his treatment in the jail.
When her father finally came out of the Detention Center, Avalon said, she was scared by what she saw.
“He was wet and his right and left arm had bruise marks,” she said.
Avalon said she thought her dad had been beaten while in jail.
Damon assured his daughter he was wet because he had to drink water from the shower inside the cell and said his bruises came from being “manhandled.”
He said this week he got the bruises when officers grabbed him because “I wouldn’t shut up.”
Avalon went with her father to make his complaint.
They went to the Rowan County Magistrate’s Office and were told to go to the jail. He mistakenly went to the Salisbury Police Department a block away.
By the time he reached the county jail, Damon said, he was very upset and “aggressive.”
He pressed the intercom outside the jail. A deputy told him to hold on. He pressed the button a couple more times.
He did not recall how many times he pressed the button. Several Rowan County Sheriff’s Office deputies and a Salisbury Police officer came from behind him and told him to leave.
According to a department report, Detention Center Officer J.J. Desmond told Salisbury Police officer T.J. Crews that Damon repeatedly pressed the intercom and cursed at jail officers.
Damon refused to leave. He wanted names.
He said the officer responded that he didn’t have to tell him anything.
“I said, ‘If you want to arrest me, arrest me. But I want my information,’ ” Damon said.
He was charged with second-degree trespassing.
“I told them the guy from the magistrate’s office told me to come here,” Damon said.
He said this week he believes he had a right to be at the jail because the magistrate sent him there. He also stands by his position that officers owed him the information he wanted.
“They should at least tell you what’s going on,” he said.
Avalon and Damon say they were ushered out of the building and were leaving willingly when Damon was arrested.
Damon told his daughter to get some names from the officers. After looking at a badge, she asked one officer his first name.
He answered, “Officer,” she said.
Avalon said she does not recall the officer’s name.
According to a department report, an officer told Avalon to leave while he searched her father.
She admits to not leaving, but said she only wanted to ask her father what she should do.
“The officer said, ‘Ma’am, I told you to back away,’ ” Avalon recalled. “I said, ‘I’m 16. I don’t have a license. I don’t have anywhere to go. Where do I go?’ ”
She said she had a cell phone, but its battery was dead and she could not call anyone.
She began backing away, she said, when her father told her to walk away.
Crews, the Salisbury officer, arrested Avalon and charged her with resisting, delaying or obstructing an officer.
“I couldn’t believe this was happening. It was like a nightmare,” she said.
She’d never been arrested before and she wondered what would happen next.
Avalon was booked into the jail, where authorities took her fingerprints and she stood for a mug shot.
She was placed in a holding cell for hours while she refused to answer any questions.
Damon had told his daughter not to answer any questions until he had a lawyer present.
A deputy asked the teen if her father knew she was “with that man,” referring to Damon. Avalon said she told them he was her father.
“They didn’t listen to anything I said,” she said.
In the holding cell, she lost track of time.
“It felt like forever,” she said.
She refused to answer questions for much of the morning and, just after 7 a.m., she finally gave them her biographical information. She was then placed in a larger cell with 30 to 40 other women.
She eventually fell asleep. Her father was able to reach someone, and they were both released.
“I’ve never been in something like that before. It was hard for me emotionally,” Avalon said.
After the ordeal, Avalon says she doesn’t trust law enforcement.
“I’d rather call my dad than 911. It was a nightmare for me,” she said. “I felt like I was treated like I was nothing. I’m just scared about everything.”
Damon said his daughter is a good kid and is enrolled in early college courses at Rowan-Cabarrus Community College.
“She does not drink or smoke or do drugs,” he said.
And Damon said he owns a local business. He is the regional director of America’s Cleaning Experts.
Damon said he felt he was treated badly and that he did not deserve it.
“The only thing that was aggressive was my language,” he said.
He also believes someone in the jail used his cell phone. He received several phone calls and text messages that were read, he said.
And Damon said he was not read his Miranda rights.
Salisbury Police Chief Mark Wilhelm said the reading of those rights was not necessary unless the officer was asking certain questions.
“Unless he was in custody and they were asking him something incriminating. Asking biographical information is not incriminating,” Wilhelm said.
Rowan County Sheriff’s Capt. John Sifford said Damon has yet to file a formal complaint. He said Damon is welcome to do so in writing at the Sheriff’s Office.
Damon said after all he’s been through, he has no desire to go near a law enforcement agency.