KQED reporter Mina Kim today spoke with San Mateo County Chief Deputy DA Stephen Wagstaffe about the DeShon Marman case. Marman, a graduate of Lincoln High in San Francisco, is the 20-year-old college football player who was removed from a US Airways flight at SFO because he allegedly ignored an airline employee's request to pull up sweatpants hanging low enough to expose his underwear.
Chief Deputy DA Wagstaffe explained that Marman has not yet been charged with any crime and that prosecutors will be reviewing the case between now and the July 18 arraignment. He said his office had asked for additional accounts of the incident from airline personnel and passengers.
Police took Marman into custody on suspicion of three crimes: battery on a police officer, a felony, and resisting arrest and trespassing, both misdemeanors. He faces up to four years in state prison on the battery charge, and one year and six months, respectively, in a county jail for resisting arrest and trespassing.
Wagstaffe said he had seen cases arising from confrontations at security checkpoints, but couldn't remember ever prosecuting one stemming from a problem on the plane itself.
Interestingly enough, at the end of the interview, the chief deputy DA volunteered the following:
"We're not deciding how somebody wears their clothing is a crime. Because it's not. What we're deciding is whether or not there was an interaction that occurred (where) there was conduct by Mr. Marman that violated the laws in his dealing with the police and with the personnel there. That's what we're looking at. This has nothing to do with whether it's inappropriate for somebody to wear their clothing in a certain way. That's not of interest to us."