A plane's crew says he disrupted passengers, and a deputy says the man was drunk and way out of line in an airport terminal.
By CHRIS TISCH
Published August 6, 2004
CLEARWATER - A man was arrested Wednesday afternoon after he tore off his shirt, Hulk Hogan-style, in the terminal of the St. Petersburg-Clearwater Airport while he argued with airline officials.
Joseph G. Ernst, 24, was arrested for misdemeanor disorderly conduct. He pleaded guilty to the charge later Wednesday and was sentenced to spend five days in the Pinellas County Jail.
An ATA pilot called Pinellas County sheriff's deputies around noon and asked them to remove Ernst from one of the airline's planes. The crew said Ernst was disrupting flight attendants and making other passengers uncomfortable, sheriff's officials said.
"He had been drinking," said Deputy Frank Sherwood, who went onto the plane to remove Ernst. "He was intoxicated."
Ernst agreed to leave the plane, which was boarding passengers for a trip to Chicago's Midway Airport. Ernst, whose last known address is in Sarasota, said he was moving to Chicago, Sherwood said.
Sherwood escorted Ernst to the terminal, where an airline official tried to schedule him for another flight. But Ernst started yelling and swearing at the employee, the deputy said.
By this time, Sherwood had built up a rapport with Ernst. He tried to calm him down, but Ernst continued to yell and curse, the deputy said.
That's when the shirt, which Sherwood said was a white tank top, came off. Sherwood said Ernst stood up, ripped off the shirt and threw it on the ground.
"Kind of like a professional wrestling thing," the deputy said.
Sherwood said other passengers still were boarding the plane at the time. He said Ernst began "flailing around and cussing."
That's when the deputy took him into custody.
"He was a young guy with a lot of testosterone," Sherwood said. "He just seemed to be angry."
But Ernst's physique - he stands 5 feet 8 and weighs 150 pounds - was a few inches in the biceps short of Hulk Hogan.
