Felony Rap For Brawling Mom In Walmart Video

JUNE 13--The Indiana mother who urged her six-year-old son to pummel a woman with whom she was brawling in a Walmart aisle is locked up tonight on a pair of criminal charges, including a felony child neglect count, according to court and jail records.

Amber Stephenson, 34, was arrested yesterday and booked into the Marion County jail, where she is being held in lieu of $3500 bond on the neglect charge and a misdemeanor contributing to the delinquency of a minor rap.

Stephenson, seen in the adjacent mug shot, was collared in connection with her June 4 scrap with Rebecca Mills, 39, in the beauty/health section of the Walmart in Beech Grove, an Indianapolis suburb. Video of the late-night fight went viral and prompted the police investigation leading to Stephenson’s arrest.

Prosecutors allege that Stephenson knowingly placed her son Johnny in a situation that endangered the child’s “life or health” by fighting with Mills while the boy stood nearby and by directing him “to engage in said fighting with her.” Specifically, as heard on the video,  Stephenson yelled at her child, “Johnny, punch her in the face! Johnny, punch her in her fucking face!”

In a radio interview prior to her arrest, Stephenson claimed that the fight started after she confronted Mills for calling a Walmart employee a “nigger.” However, according to a probable cause affidavit, when Stephenson first spoke to cops, she said that she only heard Mills “using profanity at a Wal-Mart employee.” The worker and a second store employee told cops that Mills did not utter any racial slurs.

Stephenson also claimed that Mills pushed her son to the ground during the melee. But videos show that Mills never touched the boy.

Stephenson told Beech Grove Police Department officers that her son “put shampoo on Mills to get her to stop fighting.” As seen in the video, the child kicked and punched Mills (pictured at left) while his mother pinned her to the ground. The boy also pelted the prone Mills with items he took from the store’s shelves before he doused her with shampoo.

Mills, who got the worst of the 10:30 PM brawl, told investigators that Stephenson’s son “continually punched and kicked her in the head while she was on the ground” and also struck her with “something hard.”

Mills is not facing any criminal charges for the Walmart fight. Stephenson would also be free from any legal entanglements had she not allegedly picked a fight with her son at her hip. Not to mention urging young Johnny to punch Mills “in her fucking face!” (9 pages)