Dateline: Ritz-Carlton, Naples, Florida - New Years Eve 2003
It appears that New Year's eve was a little more than average for Alex Lifeson,
his son Justin and his wife Michelle. I am just quoting from several newspaper
articles as I was not an eye witness...
From all accounts Justin decided to join the local band at the Ritz-Carlton to
wish his wife and everyone a Happy New Year. Someone took exception to this act
and demanded that Justin be removed. It got to the point that the manager, a
Mr. Frank Barner was called in and had to call the local authorities to have
Justin and his wife removed.
Police reports indicate that Justin and Alex took exception to being removed
from the premises and an altercation pursued, officers felt it necessary to use
a stun gun on both Justin and Alex. During the altercation officers accused Alex
of spitting blood at them and pushing a female officer down the stairs.
It also appears from other reports that Alex had his nose broken by the
officers during the altercation, might this explain the spitting of blood,
perhaps Alex was clearing his breathing passages which might be wrongly
interpreted. The police report also indicated that Justin was thrashing
violently during the arrest, hence the use of the stun gun, and that Alex
was listed at 6 feet 230+ pounds and required a stun gun as well. Could it
be that the violent thrashing and Alex's large size required a strong and
very physical reaction by the police that might have resulted in the female
officer accidentally falling down the stairs.
In the 30 year history of RUSH there has never been any similar situations.
RUSH and Alex Lifeson have contributed countless millions to charities
and have received the Order of Canada for outstanding public service to
their country. Alex is also a co-owner of a bar called the Orbit Room in
Toronto and again has had no history of drunkenness or violence during its
7 plus years of operation.
Naples is a very upper class posh city in the south of Florida. You do
not find very many spring-break vacationers in Naples as having a good
time is not overly appreciated by the older, rich individuals that
mostly inhabit this town and pay their taxes to keep it that way.
Could the management at the Ritz-Carlton panicked a bit, could the local
police force have gotten a little excited and miss handled the situation.
We have never heard of security (want-to-be-police) nor police officers
using excess force to subdue people. Obviously this was a big event for
Naples area, a so called big catch, this is obvious by the use of the
mug shots in the article by the Naples Daily News. Most professional
news services used canned photos of Alex from a RUSH tour. To use the
the mug shots is likening Alex, Justin, and Michelle to America’s most
wanted or even worse Saddam Hussein. But what is to be expected by an
small American town journal.
Pass your thoughts on this matter to the reporter, John Henderson.
Perhaps we could find out more from the Ritz-Carlton, their phone number is
239-598-3300 or their fax is 239-598-6690 or the email for the Vice-President
of Public Relations is vivian.deuschl@ritzcarlton.com.
Finally you can express your concerns to the Sheriff for Collier County,
Don Hunter at sheriff@colliersheriff.org.
I will openly print any and all comments that I receive from any of the
above mentioned organizations and/or individuals.
I was not at the incident and have only expressed what has been printed in
various newspapers and online websites. We at the Canadian Music Scene are
upset by the news from Florida and wish all the best to Alex, Justin, and
Michelle and hope for a quick and amiable solution to this unfortunate incident.
We will post any new information as we receive it.
Update: 26 January 2004
The State's Attorney's office has asked for a continuance on
Alex's arraignment scheduled for today.
The Attorney's office requires more time to determine what if any charges
will be filed against Alex.
This information comes from yet another article written by John Henderson in
the Naples Daily News which is clearly biased against Alex.
I have no problem with the listing of the background and work history of the
Collier County's Deputies that are part of the incident. However we have only
a little section dedicated to Alex's background and his unblemished record. This
section is squished in between two much larger sections on how great the deputies
are or have been. It appears that both sides of the incident have great backgrounds
and track records. RUSH fans don't believe it was Alex, Collier County's Sheriff's
Department doesn't believe it was their Deputies. Maybe mistakes were made on both
sides, I still contend that no one is perfect and the best solution is to have both
sides walk away and treat it as an unfortunate incident that we should all forget.
I cannot hold back on my opinion of Mr Henderson any longer:
Mr. Henderson's need to publish Alex and Justin's mug shots clearly worries me.
Perhaps the Sheriff's department should be investigating his fetish towards these
pictures, who knows what this hack of a journalist does behind closed doors.
------
An article written in the Naples Daily News tries to point out the seriousness of
charges laid against Alex. They compare a local Doctor who received a two year
sentence for "battery of a police officer". This is a lesser charge than the
one Alex faces with a minimum sentence of 5 years.
In this article the following statement is printed, "Much of the action that led to
the charges happened in a stairwell, however, meaning the only witnesses will be the
dispute's participants."
Yet an earlier article by the Naples Daily News quoted the police as saying, ""There are
quite a few witnesses, and the department is looking over hotel security tapes to see
whether the incident was caught on tape," she said. "There were many people in that
stairwell. Remember, as deputies were trying to take Justin away, an entourage came
flooding in behind them. I'm not sure who a lot of them were. We had to get rid of most
of them to deal with the altercation that was the most volatile."
This statement clearly indicates that there were many people in the stairwell, that
most had to be cleared out, it does not indicate that all had been cleared out.
So in the time it took for the officers and security to get the "many" people out
of the stairwell no violence occurred but it all conveniently happened after everyone
or almost everyone was cleared from the stairwell. What did Alex and Justin do, did
they just stand there and wait for everyone to be cleared and then started to react
violently against their arrest. Could the female officer been bumped down the stairs
when the entourage entered the stairwell or during the time it took to clear them
out of the stairwell. What was the mental state of the officers at this time, they
clearly had more than they bargained for, from having to clear the entourage could
they be a little pumped up and looking to end the situation quickly, no matter
what force it might have taken.
So far the journalism from the Naples Daily News has been clearly biased towards
the Collier County's Sheriff's department, I have asked on several occasions that
they print some of my comments in their "Letter's to the Editor" but this has
fallen on death or is it biased ears.
------
An article by Phil Lewis in the Naples Daily News expresses more concerns about the
emails being sent to them, The Collier County Sheriff's Department, and the Ritz
Carlton (also the Naples Police Department who had nothing to do with the incident.)
In this article Mr. Lewis expresses "Journalistic Integrity" in the publishing of
Alex's home address in Naples. So Journalistic Integrity is okay to publish addresses
and publish booking mug shots but RUSH fans do not have the right to express their
displeasure in the above actions. Publish what you feel you must but quit you're
complaining about the consequences, how does it go...
"You made you're bed, now you have to sleep in it!"
------
More details emerge... an article taken from Naples
Daily News with a brief eye-witness account from Pat Cole, Nat King Cole's 71-old
younger brother whose band was playing the $650/couple New Year's event.
Some more brilliant statements from the Collier County Sheriff's department staff,
specifically someone named, "Osceola" (you think you had emails before).
News on the bond company, bail, and their roles on the World Tour.
... and finally the continued class less use of the mug shots by the Daily New's
reporter, John Henderson (maybe some fetish or something, I can send you some
better pictures since you apparently can find any.)
------
Rock star Zivojinovich's arrest will be given proper, timely review.
An article taken from the Naples Daily News January 11, 2004
written by Collier Country Sheriff, Don Hunter.
Wouldn't a Sheriff for the same accredited Police Department that was involved in the
incident under investigation be a little biased towards his own Deputies statements.
Let's hope Mr. Hunter's investigative skills are a lot better than his writing skills.
------
A very interesting article on corruption in Collier Country (Naples) comparing
corrupt city officials and the slap on the wrist sentences that they received
compared to the possible 30 years that Alex could receive. Congrats to Brent Batten
on having the intestinal fortitude to write this article. Hopefully he is not in jail or
by -- Collier Country standards -- received the death penalty!
Brent's article.
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We have contacted the Ritz-Carlton and asked for a statement from them on this
incident. We did hear back from them but they indicated that they had no
statement at this time (January 3, 2004), we are still waiting...
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