WELLINGTON — Six members of a family were arrested at The Mall at Wellington Green in an incident that began benignly enough over a pair of droopy jeans but ended like a chaotic scene out of the Cops TV show.
An estimated 20 deputies, two canine units and a police helicopter swarmed the area surrounding the mall's food court, shutting down roads, all to arrest a 52-year-old man, his 50-year-old wife and four other relatives, ages 16 to 20, Thursday evening.
It's a family affair. They get to spend the holiday in jail together," Palm Beach County sheriff's Lt. Jay Hart said.
For the Leger family, which has lived in Wellington since 1992, though, this is no laughing matter. They say sheriff's deputies overreacted with not just the force of their numbers but also with sheer force.
Their arrests, along with the physical and verbal abuse family members say they endured, were punishment for both questioning the arrest of one of their sons and for leveling racism charges on the deputies, they contend.
That isn't so, deputies say. The family attempted to stop deputies from arresting a relative, which led to the situation spiraling out of control.
The fracas began around 7 p.m. Thursday when deputies arrested Frantz Leger, the Legers' 20-year-old son. He had returned to the mall where he was banned for violating its "Rules of Common Courtesy" on or around August. The Florida State University sophomore business major was verboten for wearing his pants too low......
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