Homeless woman indicted for violent confrontation with police

By Joe Johnson

An Athens-Clarke grand jury has indicted a homeless woman on felony charges in connection with a violent confrontation with police officers last month.

Amber Mae Skeens, 37, was charged with felony obstruction of law enforcement officers, criminal damage to property, and criminal trespass, according to the indictment filed Tuesday in Superior Court.

According to police and court records, the incident happened on the evening of September 1st at the Murphy Express gas station and convenience store in Lexington Road.

The clerk called the police to complain the Skeens had been in the restroom with her dog for over a half hour and refused to come out.

When officers arrived the clerk told them that she didn’t want to press charges and only wanted the woman out of the store.

Skeen would not listen to the officers and she slashed water al around from a bottle, then fought with them as they tried to physically escort her out.

She reportedly kicked and thrashed about and broke a display case by falling onto it.

One of the officers reported that Skeen tried to bite him and grabbed at his duty belt before she was taken to the ground, handcuffed and then carried out of the store.

In addition to breaking the display case, Skeens had ripped an electronic flusher from the restroom wall, and the value of the total damage was estimated to be about $700.

She has since been detained at the county jail in lieu of $5,000 bail, and on September 15th her public defender filed a motion to have the bail amount reduced due to her being indigent.

Her arraignment is scheduled for December 16th.