Thu, Nov 26 2009
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Published June 26, 2009 10:35 pm - Almost two years after the drowning death of a 6-year-old Joplin boy, a local water park reopened Friday, but not without a scuffle between law enforcement and a water-park employee. Rural Joplin water park reopens By Derek Spellman dspellman@joplinglobe.com Almost two years after the drowning death of a 6-year-old Joplin boy, a local water park reopened Friday, but not without a scuffle between law enforcement and a water-park employee. The Swimmin’ Hole Water Park reopened after owner James Burt produced documentation showing he had secured a $1 million liability insurance policy required under a new state law. The measure was enacted last year after Ethan Cory drowned at the park while on a trip with the Boys & Girls Club of Southwest Missouri. But the reopening was preceded by controversy after a Swimmin’ Hole employee, 64-year-old Cecil Scribner, allegedly struck a deputy with the Newton County Sheriff’s Department who was on site to verify Burt had proof of insurance. Scribner has since been charged with one felony count of assaulting a law-enforcement officer. Advertisements had announced the park would reopen at noon Friday, although when Newton County Sheriff Ken Copeland and other officers arrived to verify Burt had the required insurance paperwork, he told them it would likely be later in the afternoon when he had the documentation in hand. The water park was admitting people onto the grounds at that time, but keeping them out of the water, a practice that Copeland said complied with the law. Copeland said he and Burt were discussing the insurance requirements when Scribner, whom he described as “belligerent,” kept trying to insert himself into the conversation. Burt and some of his employees dispute that characterization. Capt. Richard Leavens, who was with Copeland, alleged Scribner at some point shoved a sheriff’s deputy. When Leavens confronted him, he said Scribner allegedly tried to gouge his eye with his thumb. Scribner was then subdued by several officers and taken out of the park in handcuffs. Burt said Copeland’s officers, whom he termed “henchman,” put their hands on Scribner first. He also accused the authorities of unnecessarily deploying a Taser against Scribner. “That is brutality,” Burt said. Leavens said one officer did draw a Taser, but did not use it because Scribner was already under control. “Pretty much everybody out here has been belligerent and argumentative,” Copeland said after the altercation. Several people gathered at the park entrance and taunted the officers. One asked them: “Why don’t you bust a meth lab?” Copeland and the other officers soon left, returning less than two hours later after Burt’s wife, Renatta, arrived with proof of the liability insurance. “They have the insurance,” Copeland said as he left Friday. “As of right now, they are in compliance.” Renatta Burt said the park had to pay a premium of almost $30,000 for the liability insurance. 
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