During questioning, an officer threatened to conduct a body search, but Kozma intervened and searched her daughter herself. She lifted her shirt, her pant legs and opened her waistband. Nothing was found. She emptied the contents of her purse. No stolen goods were inside.
The police let her go.
A bigger problem?
Jodi left the store, tears streaming down her face. She has not been to a Wal-Mart since. And she gets frazzled when she sees Wal-Mart TV commercials, or a Wal-Mart truck on the highway.
“How did it get to that?” said a frustrated Kozma, who believes Wal-Mart and police escalated the situation by not letting Jodi calm down and handcuffing her.
Prominent plaintiff’s attorney Deborah Gordon, who is representing the Kozmas, agreed, saying Wal-Mart and police “over-reacted in a goonish way.”
“We’re not talking about a (stolen) gun or a plasma TV or cash. We’re talking hair ties. And it turned out she didn’t have anything,” Gordon said. “Instead of everybody taking a deep breath and telling the grandmother, ‘Would you mind sitting in a chair here and wait for her mom,’ they’ve gotta do their ramped-up Rambo crap.”