Woman Is Tased in Courtroom After Struggling With Bailiffs and Refusing to be Handcuffed

Evone Diane Clifton, a 39-year-old resident of Hastings, was tased in County Judge Melissa Moore Stens’s courtroom at the Flagler  County courthouse on Thursday (Dec. 8) after allegedly fighting and striking bailiffs and refusing to be handcuffed, moments after the judge ordered her re-arrest for failing a urinalysis test. She was supposed to enter a plea on two previous misdemeanor counts that day.

Clifton’s previous charges would have likely resulted in a year’s probation at most. She now faces a first-degree felony charge of aggravated battery on an officer and a third degree felony charge of resisting officers with violence, with a combined maximum potential penalty of 35 years in prison.




She is not likely to be punished for anywhere near that much, should she be convicted. But judges don’t look kindly on an individual assaulting officers assigned to protect judges, and doing so in a courtroom, to boot, compounding contempt for law.

Clifton was arrested in June on the original misdemeanors–drunk driving and driving on a suspended license–when a Flagler County Sheriff’s  deputy saw her stumbling in and out of her Ford Explorer at a RaceTrac gas station on State Road 100. She refused to answer deputies’ questions, conduct field sobriety exercises or a breathalizer test during that encounter and, as she would in court last week, “continuously moved her arms back and forth to hinder the deputies from putting [handcuffs] on her.”

The drunk driving charge was a second offense within the past 10 years. She was assigned a public defender and posted bail on $2,000. The case went through its usual steps until last Thursday, when Clifton was to tender a plea at 10:30 a.m. before Distler, who’s nobody’s fool: she must have suspected something. One of the conditions of Clifton’s bail required her to stay off drugs and alcohol. The judge ordered a urinalysis.

Distler’s courtroom is on the fourth floor. Deputy Vincent Schrider took Clifton to the second floor for the test. It showed positive for alcohol and pot, a violation of her bond. Schrider escorted Clifton back to Distler’s courtroom with deputy Paula Priester. Distler ordered Clifton’s bond revoked.

When Priester attempted to put the handcuffs on Clifton, Clifton reached into her pocket instead, pulling out a cell phone and saying, “Fuck this” before allegedly resisting the deputies’ orders and attempts to control her. Clifton then allegedly grabbed Priester “on both shoulders and a struggle ensued,” according to her arrest report, “and Clifton did strike Deputy Priester on the upper left shoulder area.”




“Taser! Taser! Taser!” Schrider yelled out as he’d pulled his weapon before firing a five-second dart into Clifton’s backside. She dropped to the floor, and was handcuffed. A Flagler County Fire Rescue unit arrived at the courthouse, as is routine after an individual has been tased. Clifton refused medical attention. She was taken back to the county jail.

After her first arrest on the drunk driving charge in June, Clifton had immediately bonded out, spending just a few hours through the booking process at the jail. She has remained at the jail since her second booking on the felony charge, this time facing a bond of $10,750, which requires a cash bail of $1,750 to bond out. For her first appearance, she appeared before County Judge Andrea Totten.