Two Carolina Panthers cheerleaders were charged after their arrest at a bar where witnesses told police the women had sex in a restroom.
Renee Thomas, 20, of Pittsboro, N.C., and Angela Keathley, 26, of Belmont, N.C., were taken to Hillsborough County Jail early Sunday.
Witnesses said the women were having sex in a stall with each other, angering patrons waiting in line to get into the restroom at the club in the Channelside district.
Thomas was charged with battery Sunday after allegedly striking a bar patron when she was leaving the restroom, then landed in even more trouble after police said she gave officers a driver's license belonging to another Panthers cheerleader who was not in Tampa.
Thomas, who made the trip to Florida for Sunday's game between the Panthers and Tampa Bay Buccaneers, was released from jail on $500 bail before police learned she was not the person she claimed to be.
Providing police with a false name is a misdemeanor. However, Thomas was charged Monday with giving a false name and causing harm to another — a third-degree felony punishable by probation or a jail term of 1 to 5 years, said police spokeswoman Laura McElroy.
Meanwhile, detectives are trying to determine how Thomas gained possession of the driver's license of the third cheerleader.
Keathley, charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest, was released on $750 bail about an hour before the Panthers played the Bucs at Raymond James Stadium. The cheerleaders were not in town to perform at the game.
Now this should get your motor running...add a car to the fantasy. (The Panthers haven't removed all of Renee's and Angela's photos from their site. Here they are together.)
Ex-cheerleaders get offer to pose, report says
Adult magazine Penthouse reportedly wants Thomas, Keathley to bare all
TAMPA, Fla. - The two former Carolina Panthers cheerleaders arrested after allegedly having sex with each other in a bathroom stall at a nightclub have been approached by Penthouse to pose nude for the adult magazine, MSNBC-TV reported Tuesday.
Meanwhile, a fugitive arrest warrant was issued for one of cheerleaders who allegedly gave a false name during her arrest at a bar where witnesses said she had sex with another cheerleader in a restroom stall.
Renee Thomas was charged with giving a false name and causing harm to another, a third-degree felony punishable by probation or a jail term of up to five years, Tampa police spokeswoman Laura McElroy said Tuesday.
Thomas, 20, was released before police learned she had given them a driver’s license belonging to another Panthers cheerleader, who was not in Tampa.
“She was bonded out on the false name she gave us,” McElroy said, adding that detectives are trying to determine how Thomas got the license.
McElroy said witness accounts that Thomas and fellow cheerleader Angela Keathley, 26, were having sex with each other in a bathroom stall “led to the commotion, but they have nothing to do with the charges.”
“The charge is that she (Thomas) punched someone in the face and then she chose to give police a fake ID,” she said.
Keathley was charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest.
Repeated attempts to reach the women were unsuccessful Tuesday.
The cheerleaders were not in town to perform at the game, and the team said both were fired from the TopCats squad for violating a signed code that bans conduct embarrassing to the Panthers.
Nurse Melissa Holden told WCAU she walked into the bathroom and found Thomas and Keathley in an occupied stall and in a compromising position.
Holden said it was another woman in line to use the bathroom who allegedly angered Thomas.
"I didn't say a word to (Thomas)," Holden said.
"The woman behind me in line somewhere, I didn't even turn to look, confronted her and said what the heck took you guys so long," Holden said. "And (Thomas) reared back and hit me."
Holden laughingly said the black eye she received was from Thomas' "boney hand."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
__________________
"A government big enough to give you everything you want is a government big enough to take from you everything you have."
Linear Mode
