SANTA FE – The Galveston County District Attorney’s Office has dropped charges against a Santa Fe mother who was arrested in an ongoing feud with her neighbor over a Confederate flag.
At a press conference Saturday, civil rights attorney Randall Kallinen said the district attorney’s office dropped the charges against Rosie Stone, who lost her son in the shooting at Santa Fe High School in 2018, due to insufficient evidence. Stone had been arrested and charged with resisting arrest and trespassing by the Santa Fe Police Department.
“There has been an ongoing harassment and this flag, this Confederate flag which some people say is a sign of racism, has been meant to harass Rosie’s elderly parents,” Kallinen said.
Kallinen held up photos which he said shows the flag had been placed on Stone’s parent’s fence.
“If it had been totally on the other side like it had before that was fine, but it had been put on Rosie’s parent’s property time and time again,” he said.
Stone has accused her neighbor, Randy Turrentine, of using the flag to harass her and her family. Turrentine’s brother insists the flag was not on Stone’s parent’s property.
“That flag was not on her parent’s property, the flag was on my brother’s fence, that wood fence is my brother’s fence, it’s not their fence it’s my brother’s fence,” said Ronnie Turrentine.
Kallinen said what Rosie did was within her rights.
“All Rosie did was take it off her parent’s property which is her right to do.” he said.
He also called for an investigation into Santa Fe’s police department over the incident.
“We are calling on the Santa Fe Police Department to discipline it’s officer for what happened. We’re going to ask the Galveston County Civil Rights Division of the District Attorney’s Office to investigate, we’re going to ask the Department of Justice to come in and ask the police why did you allow this flag to be on their property,” Kallinen said.
Stone said she hopes to be able to resolve the situation.
“I hope that going forward we can get this all resolved, what I need people to understand is that this is not the first time that I’ve dealt with the city of Santa Fe and the police department,” she said.
She also said this isn’t a situation she wanted to be in, but she feels she has to do something.
“I don’t like what’s going on, I haven’t liked it at all, this isn’t something that I want to be doing, but I have to because my parents are too old, they can’t be handling these kind of situations,” she said.
Civil rights activist Shelby Stewart said the news of the charges being dropped was a good day for justice.
“Today is a good day for justice and we know that the race does not belong to the swift nor the battle to the strong, but to she who endures to the end,” he said.