Instead of milk mustaches, several people left the annual Dairy Festival with scrapes and bruises on June 6 when a small fight broke out.
One was taken to the hospital, and two women and two juveniles were arrested.
“That group just had a bad day all the way around, but other than that, the Dairy Festival was uneventful as far as crime or trouble,” Eatonton Police Chief Howell Cardwell said.
Yozelin Morales, 31, of Custer Avenue, Eatonton, and Juana Rossanna Hernandez-Arieto, 30, of Sumter Street Station, Eatonton, were taken to Putnam County Jail and charged with affray. They each were released on a $440 cash bond.
The two juveniles, ages 12 and 15, were charged with one count of battery and two counts of cruelty to children, according to reports from the Eatonton Police Department.
The trouble started with some verbal bullying and name-calling between the two women’s children and their friends, according to one witness’s statement. Another witness told officers the argument was about a deceased relative. The youth called their mothers, who then confronted each other, and their words escalated into a "knock-down, drag-out," Cardwell said.
Eatonton police officers Carl Hudson and Sgt. Eli James was patrolling the area on foot at the time.
“We were advised by a (man) that there was a fight in progress near the swing area on the courthouse lawn across from Sumter Street,” Hudson wrote in his report. “As I approached the fight, I observed two females on the ground fighting.”
“Ms. Juana Hernandez was lying on the ground bleeding from her forehead,” Hudson said. “(She) sustained a laceration above her left eye along with bruises on her forehead, knees, and both ankles as a result of the incident. … EMS arrived and transported (her) to Putnam General Hospital for treatment of her injuries.”
Cardwell said videos taken by friends and family members of those involved reveal that while Hernandez-Arieto was down on the ground, one of the juveniles kicked her in the face, and the other one hit her.
“They kicked that mama while she was down, and it was just a mess,” Cardwell said. “Video shows the two mothers before the fight, and we saw it as mutual to start with. So, even though one woman did lose the fight, both of them did start out swinging. That’s why we charged them both with affray.”