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Arrest made in Oakland beauty shop beatdown case
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By Amy Kniss
Cavenia Bryant has been arrested for her involvement in the Oakland beauty shop beating posted on You Tube. “We’re close on bringing them in. We don’t want to scare them by releasing the names publicly,” said Jeff Thomason, Public Information Officer for the Oakland Police Department.
The May 5 assault took place around 5:50 p.m., but the victim, Melissa Seals, didn’t call the Oakland Police Department until around 7 p.m., Thomason reported. Officers responded and took Seals’ statement: six women entered her Oakland hair salon as Seals cut a customer’s hair, they locked the door from the inside, then two of the women proceeded to beat Seals for several minutes. Three other women watched the attack and a fourth videotaped the beating.
After giving her statement to the responding officers Seals declined to press charges or identify any of the women involved in the attack, according to OPD records. Seals’ refused to press charges for the misdemeanor assault; the officers were obligated by department policy to take a report and close the case without further investigation.
“It’s different for felonies,” said Thomason, “we can investigate those even if the victim doesn’t press charges.” The Oakland Police Department currently has 13,000 open felony investigations, which could escalate to 30,000 by the end of the year, so the department has little time to spend investigating misdemeanors. “If the victim wants to press charges,” said Thomason, “we absolutely investigate.” But with the department’s limited resources, misdemeanor cases aren’t pursued without the victim’s cooperation.
More than a month after the incident officers learned that the video, shot during the attack, had surfaced on You Tube. But without Seals corroboration, according to Thomason, the video itself wasn’t enough to warrant any arrests. Finally, Seals, at the behest of her mother who had seen the You Tube video of the beating, agreed to cooperate with officers.
Screening the video with officers, Seals admitted knowing, and identified, four of her attackers. Warrants were issued for their arrest. The women face up to a year in jail and some hefty fines. Yet, Thomason said he can’t recall a misdemeanor going to trial, other than DUIs, “they usually all plead out.”
