Mugshot of Ava Newton. By. THE VIRGIN ISLANDS POLICE DEPARTMENT.
ST. THOMAS — A hotel room brawl between two sisters here on holiday has led to a slew of criminal charges for one member of the family.
On Sunday night around 10:13 p.m., officers of the V.I. Police Department were summoned to Gallows Point Resort because a guest altercation reportedly required “immediate security assistance,” according to the police report generated following the incident.
According to court documents, a third officer who arrived subsequently was directed to a room from which loud screams were emanating. “You are killing me,” he heard, before entering to find a chaotic scene — two resort security officials and one of the officers who had previously arrived were attempting to restrain a woman on the floor, while she screamed loudly in “extreme agitation” and vigorously resisted the security personnel’s attempts at controlling her.
Another woman was further inside the room, directing a profane tirade towards the other officer who had arrived initially, directing him to leave the room and demanding to see her sister, who was being restrained on the floor. She too, reportedly grew more and more irate, eventually threatening to harm the officer if he spoke about her sister again.
The sisters were placed into protective custody and separated from each other. One, Ava Newton, began to accuse the officer she had been screaming at earlier of raping her, and demanded to see his body camera footage. The police report notes that she smelled of alcohol, her eyes red and glazed. Newton then reportedly turned her attention to one of the resort’s security guards, allegedly belittling his economic status in a stream of invective. She then accused resort staff of molesting her sister.
The police report notes that an officer tried to reassure her that her sibling was safe, upon which Newton reportedly expressed a fervent desire that the officer’s daughter would be sexually assaulted.
Subsequently, she apologized for her behavior, but reportedly became confrontational once again after being transported to a nearby health center for treatment.
According to court documents, police made contact with the sisters’ parents. Their father told officers that they had all been drinking at the beach bar after dinner, but when the parents retired back to their room, the daughters stayed behind at the bar. About 10:00 p.m. that night, the father said, he and his wife were woken up by loud knocking on the door. It was the Newton daughters, appearing intoxicated and acting aggressively towards each other. He told police that he tried to intervene but was attacked by Newton. His wife then told him to leave and that she would handle her daughters herself.
By that time, the commotion had attracted attention from hotel staff and other guests, and police were summoned.
The security guard that Newton had belittled told officers that he had just come on shift when he was alerted to the physical altercation occurring in the Newton’s hotel room. He found Ava Newton fighting with her sister and their mother, and was able to separate the three women while reportedly dodging blows from Ava. He says he overheard her accusing her stepfather of raping her.
The mother, meanwhile, did not want to speak with police, who noted that she had a bite mark on her right forearm, along with several scratch marks.
Ava Newton was informed that she would be charged with simple assault, upon which she reportedly grew irate, accusing the arresting officer of sexually assaulting her at the hotel. She also forcefully rebuffed attempts by the on-call physician to treat her or administer the routine pre-arrest Covid-19 test. Ava Newton reportedly kicked the doctor in the shins as he approached her, causing him to lose balance. Hospital staff reportedly had to restrain her to allow the necessary medical procedures to be performed, following which Ava Newton was taken to the Leander Jurgen Command Police station to face charges – two counts of simple assault as a crime of domestic violence, interfering with an officer, disturbance of the peace and third-degree false reporting. She remained in custody until her advice of rights hearing, which was scheduled for Wednesday.
In court on Wednesday, bail was set at $1000, payable in full. The court granted her permission to return to her home in Texas, with the condition that she waive her right to formal extradition proceedings and return for “critical proceedings.” Ava Newton’s next court appearance is scheduled for June 9.
