Trending Topics

Fla. firefighter on paid leave after arrest for disorderly conduct

Marvens Antoine, 25, was arrested after a police officer witnessed him using “fighting words” and disobeying the officer’s orders to walk away

19006994.jpg

Marvens Antoine, 25, has been with the department for 13 months, and is on paid administrative leave after being arrested on a disorderly conduct charge last week.

Photo/Orange County

Gal Tziperman Lotan
Orlando Sentinel

An Orange County firefighter is on paid administrative leave after being arrested on a disorderly conduct charge last week, a spokeswoman said.

Marvens Antoine, 25, has been with the department for 13 months. He will have an administrative hearing about the arrest Thursday, Orange County Fire Rescue spokeswoman Carrie Proudfit said.

Antoine was arrested in downtown Orlando just before 3 a.m. March 7, court records show. An Orlando police officer wrote that he saw Antoine arguing with another man near a pizza place near the intersection of West Washington Street and Orange Avenue, records show.

“Do something about it, I’m right here,” Antoine told the other man, according to his arrest affidavit. “You won’t do anything.”

Antoine had his fists up “as if he was ready to engage in a fight,” Orlando police Officer Gabriel Pagan wrote in Antoine’s arrest report.

Pagan approached the two men. The other man, who Pagan did not identify, saw him and started walking away, Pagan wrote. Antoine stayed put and said, “That’s what I thought.”

“If I was an average Orlando citizen, I would take these statements as fighting words, and they would provoke me to engage in a physical altercation,” Pagan wrote.

Pagan wrote that he “repeatedly” told Antoine to walk away, but Antoine didn’t. Pagan arrested Antoine on a charge of disorderly conduct, a violation of a municipal ordinance.

Antoine was released from the Orange County Jail on a $250 bond last week.

———

©2019 The Orlando Sentinel (Orlando, Fla.)

WHAT TO READ NEXT
An investigation into a complaint in the Casper Fire-EMS Department led to a greater review of sexual harassment, workplace hostility policies
A physician for Pasco County never saw Firefighter William Hammond, or his medical records, and claimed the cancer was not aggressive
An internal investigation found that Kansas City Firefighter Brenda Paikowski was “more likely than not” subjected to three years of harassment in violation of city policies
Syracuse Mayor Ben Walsh’s administration planned to have a hearing officer rule, in public, on discipline instead of an arbitration process