Shopper cleared in receipt showdown

By Corey Friedman

An Illinois village has dropped a disorderly conduct charge against a man who was attacked and handcuffed by a Wal-Mart security guard when he refused to give the guard his receipt at the door.

Michael J. Phelan told IndieRegister.com that the village prosecutor in Forest Park, Ill.dismissed the charge Wednesday evening.

Phelan, an alderman in the nearby town of Berwyn, Ill., was accused of scuffling with security guard Louis Jones, a uniformed, off-duty Chicago police officer. Surveillance video, however, paints a different picture.

“[The prosecutor] claimed that Wal-Mart wouldn’t cooperate in turning over the other half of the videos the judge subpeonaed,” Phelan said in an e-mail.  “The tape they did provide from the front door entrance showed me being attacked and handcuffed.  I did nothing to warrant what they did to me.  I was merely standing there with my hands on my shopping cart.”

Police brutality, false arrest at Wal-Mart

By Corey Friedman

Wal-Mart surveillance video will show an Illinois man violently wrestled to the ground and handcuffed by a store security guard after he refused to hand over his receipt for a door search.

Michael J. Phelan, a town alderman from Berwyn, Ill., was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct for allegedly scuffling with an off-duty Chicago police officer who was working as a private security guard in the Forest Park, Ill. Wal-Mart Supercenter on July 27. The guard, Louis Jones, claims Phelan refused to show his receipt and resisted his attempt to handcuff him.

Phelan told IndieRegister.com that he showed Jones his receipt but refused to hand it to him. He is contesting the disorderly conduct charge and said Wal-Mart has caused his court appearance to be delayed because it has failed to turn over store surveillance tapes in a timely manner.

By their very nature, retail receipt checks are voluntary. Store employees can ask to see a shopper’s receipt or look through his purchases, but customers can decline to be searched.

Under state shoplifting laws, stores cannot detain you unless they have probable cause or reasonable suspicion — depending on your state — to believe you’ve committed a crime. Both are established legal standards that require some sort of evidence.