Woman Sues Newport After Making "Citizens Arrest" Over Ding-Dong-Ditch

Woman Sues Newport After Making "Citizens Arrest" Over Ding-Dong-Ditch

A woman has sued the City of Newport in federal court, alleging she was falsely arrested by Newport Police after she made what she said was a “citizens’ arrest” of juveniles. The juveniles claimed they were playing “ding dong ditch.”

Cheryl Hodgson, a resident of Hawaii and a “police officer for over 30 years,” says in the lawsuit that she was with her son, where he was living on Morton Avenue in the 5th Ward on December 27, 2024, when she saw a “suspicious looking person” across the street.

Hodgson says the person “quickly walked away when he noticed the Hodgsons looking.”

GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLAST

She said after seeing two more individuals “holding radios and wearing hooded sweatshirts and dark clothing,” she stopped one of them by her vehicle, “placing her arm across his chest” to ask what they were doing.

Hodgson says in the lawsuit that he told her they had been “playing ding dong ditch.”

What then ensued was a confluence of events that saw the Newport Police later arrest Hodgson, who is suing on multiple counts, including an award of compensatory and punitive damages.

She is being represented by attorney V. Edward Formisano.

 

“Citizens’ Arrest”
According to the lawsuit, when Hodgson confronted the individuals - who she identified as “teenage boys” - she said they were nowhere near the front door of the building.

Hodgson told them, “They needed to call their parents or the police, or she would be calling the police to inform them of their suspicious activity.”

The lawsuit then continues:

“The individual that Ms. Hodgson had her arm around told her to let him go and accused her of illegally holding him. Ms. Hodgson stated that she had been a police officer for over 30 years, she had a badge and carried a gun, which were both upstairs in her house, and that she was making a citizens’ arrest,” according to the lawsuit.

Hodgson said when the individual called his father, he “immediately told his father that a woman had her arm around his neck. This individual’s father began swearing at Ms. Hodgson and stated he was on the way to ‘kick her ass.'"

It was hours later, says Hodgson, that she heard “loud pounding” on the front door of her son’s apartment; she said that “fearful that it was the individual’s father from earlier, she called 911 and went to retrieve her firearm.”

 

Police Involvement
Hodgson said that when she called dispatch, she “explained the situation of finding suspicious males in the driveway of her son’s apartment building, then identified herself as an off-duty officer and disclosed that she had a firearm so it could be relayed to responding units.

The lawsuit maintains that “dispatch informed Ms. Hodgson that officers with the Department were at the door and requested she secure her firearm. Ms. Hodgson did exactly that, and opened the door for the officers.”

It was at that time, Hodgson claims, that “officers immediately reached into the doorway, grabbed [her], forcefully threw her against the side of the building, and handcuffed her.”

She says she was then placed in a police cruiser “for at least an hour” while Newport Police yelled into a bullhorn, “8 Morton Avenue, come out with your hands up.”

“Ms. Hodgson’s son had left hours earlier, and she repeatedly tried to explain to the officers that no one was in the home,” states the lawsuit. “Ms. Hodgson began having difficulty breathing, which she knew would get worse, and asked for her inhaler, but the officers stated they could not provide it to her.”

Hodgson said she was ultimately taken to Newport Hospital for an inhaler before being taken to the Police Department, where she “was fingerprinted and had her mugshot taken.”

“She was told her son had also been arrested and that her dogs had been taken to the animal shelter,” according to the lawsuit.

Hodgson says that while she was being held, she got to the point “where she could barely breathe, was wheezing, and started to hyperventilate.”

“The officer stood at the door stating that he could not hear or understand her for approximately ten minutes before getting the inhaler,” the lawsuit alleges.

Hodgson says she and her son were released the following day.

 

Charges Dropped
According to Hodgson, on December 31, 2024, along with her son and their attorney, they met with the Newport Police Department.

“Newport Police Captain Naylor informed Ms. Hodgson that all charges against [her] and her son had been dropped. Captain Naylor then requested that Ms. Hodgson and her son sign a release, “ the lawsuit continues.

Hodsgson said she refused, but her son signed “because he was worried that if he did not, it would have implications on his top secret clearance with the U.S. Navy.”

The lawsuit says that “even though Mr. Hodgson signed the release, the arrest appeared during a top secret review with the U.S Navy.”

Now, Hodgson is suing the city, claiming that “by and through its policy making officials and agents and police officers, approved, ignored, acquiesced to, condoned, intentionally ignored, and/or were deliberately indifferent to the practice of routinely seizing and arresting individuals without legal cause, and failed to change or eliminate such unlawful policy.”

Hodgson is suing on multiple counts, including violations of her rights under the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments of the United States Constitution; negligence; false arrest; and malicious prosecution.

The City of Newport declined to comment on the “pending litigation.”