KWCH - Kansas News and Weather - Cell Phone in Movie Leads to Hospitalization

Cell Phone in Movie Leads to Hospitalization

(HUTCHINSON, Kan.)

Theaters across the country have zero tolerance policies on cell phones, including here in Wichita. Now a Hutchinson theater may join the list, after a fight over a cell phone sends a woman to the hospital.

"The guy came up to me, started punching me in the head," said Savannah. "And I finally got knocked out, I fell on the concrete, fell unconscious, and I couldn't do anything else."

That was the first blow to Savannah, who refused to say her last name. She's also afraid to show her face, after being attacked for what she says is telling management about cell phone use in the movie theater.

She says 8 people behind her in a theater jumped her after a manager told them to put the phones away.

"Kinda hard for me to fight back when you have that many people coming toward you," she said. She said she has a swollen bruise on the back of her head, and internal bruising around her pelvis.

Her mother Melinda said "They started stepping on her stomach before I even realized -- it happened so fast." And then they turned on the older woman.

"This girl started punching me and knocked me backwards," said Melinda. "They kept hitting me and punching me."

The attack happened 30 minutes into the movie Saw VI, and it happened inside the theater. Both the theater manager and the women say hardly anyone offered to help the women during the brawl. The group of 20-somethings to continue throwing punches as the movie kept rolling. The theater never turned the lights on, even as paramedics pulled Savannah out.

Savannah now regrets her move to tell management of the cell-phone violators. "If I had known it was going to go that far, I never would have said anything."

The theater says it already has a cell phone policy. The first time you're caught with it, they ask you to turn it off. And if you're caught again, you can be asked to leave the theater. But that policy may change in light of Friday's incident. 31

"If they're caught, I won't say it, I'll just tell them to leave," said James Dake. The General Manager of the Mall 8 Movie says the theater reserves the right to turn away anyone, and Dake says he will turn away the group if it comes back.

"But we got to keep the peace and keep the people coming who are keeping us alive," he explained.

But he's lost two customers. Savannah and Melinda say they'll never show their face at the theater again.

This isn't the first time a cell phone in a theater lead to violence. In January, a man was accused of battery after he confronted a woman using her cell phone during a movie in a Wichita Warren Theater.

As for the Hutch case, police have no suspects -- although they do have surveillance video.