Officer cleared in theater fight

A federal jury concluded Monday that a Utah County woman exaggerated her claim the she was permanently injured when a deputy reportedly threw her down a flight of stairs during a fight in a Provo movie theater.

After hearing closing arguments, it took a jury of nine men and three women just under two hours to exonerate Utah County Sheriff's Sgt. Harold "Skip" Curtis of civil claims brought against him by Vanessa Arnold.

"We never thought it was a righteous case to begin with," said Curtis' attorney, Peter Stirba, after the verdict was read.

Curtis said this case has hung over his head for three and a half years and he's happy that his legal battle is over.

The weeklong trial stemmed from an altercation during the showing of the movie "Troy" on May 23, 2004. Arnold claims Curtis swore and yelled at them for talking during the movie previews, then after the movie became involved in an argument with her boyfriend, Lorenzo Castillo. Arnold claims that Castillo confronted Curtis and demanded an apology.

During the confrontation, Curtis flashed his sheriff's badge and placed Castillo under arrest. Arnold claims she begged Curtis to stop, only to be grabbed and thrown down the stairs, where she struck her head. Arnold claimed she suffered permanent vision loss, as well as chronic neck and back pain.

Curtis counters that the couple did not stop talking throughout the movie and that he politely asked them to stop several times. He testified that he did not grab Arnold but that she fell by accident.

During the trial, the jury was shown surveillance video of Arnold walking, opening doors and appearing to function normally. Other footage shows Arnold undergoing a change when she arrived at her therapist's office, hunched over and appearing to move with difficulty.

After rendering the verdict, two jurors who did not want their names used, said they simply didn't believe Arnold and said the deputy's actions did not "shock the conscience," as required by federal law.

"It worked out the way it should," one juror said after shaking Curtis' hand.

Another juror said the jury was united in its opinion that while things happened on both sides, Curtis' actions were not shocking to the conscience, which is the legal standard they had to use.

Arnold's attorney, Austen Johnson, took issue with the jury having to find a higher legal standard. Had Curtis just been a civilian, it would have been a different story, he said, but because Curtis said he was making an arrest at the time, he enjoyed a higher legal burden of proof.