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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
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.
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©2019 The Orlando Sentinel (Orlando, Fla.)