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Sisters sentenced in stiletto heel attack

by Dave Boyce

A pair of sisters pleaded no contest to misdemeanor charges in connection with a July 2010 British Bankers Club incident in which one of the sisters attacked a Menlo Park police officer with a stiletto heeled shoe.

In a plea agreement in San Mateo County Superior Court before Judge Lisa Novak, Delores Julia Simmons, 22, pleaded no contest on Jan. 11 to a charge of battering a police officer. Ms. Simmons was sentenced to two years probation and $180 in fines, District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe said in a report.

She is also subject to random searches by police, must abstain from drinking alcohol and is subject to chemical testing for banned substances, prosecutors said. Restitution to the battered police officer is to be determined on March 1. Ms. Simmons is out of custody on $25,000 bail.

In a separate plea bargain over a charge of resisting arrest, Velisa Marie Simmons, 21, received essentially the same sentence as her sister with the exception that she owes no restitution, prosecutors said. She has been out of custody on her own recognizance.

Velisa Simmons's attorney, Mitri Hanania of Redwood City, called the resolution "a fair disposition, based on the facts." The original felony charges were dropped, Mr. Hanania said, adding that he would have taken it to a jury had prosecutors not agreed to the lesser charges.

Officers from the Menlo Park Police Department were called to the BBC on July 18, 2010, and discovered fights going on outside the bar and in the basement garage, where the Simmons sisters were encountered, prosecutors said.

An officer ordered Velisa Simmons and others to leave the garage and Ms. Simmons responded: "Make me, mother----er," and started fighting with the officers as they attempted to arrest her, prosecutors said.

It was about this time that Delores Simmons came up behind an arresting officer and struck him in the head with a five-inch stiletto-heeled shoe that resulted in a gash in the officer's head, prosecutors said.

Officers applied pepper spray to both women and arrested them.

If an officer gives a lawful order, any delay in following it can result in a resisting-arrest charge. But as for calling an officer an uncomplimentary name, there's nothing on the books against it, Mr. Hanania said.