- 33 year old woman lives in elderly people basement
- beats up elderly couple for not getting her some food
- cops come and she says she cannot walk & fake passes out
- due to her size more cops come to lift her
- cops carry her up the basement stairs and she fights them the whole way
- once at the police station she's suddenly able to walk on her own
SPRINGFIELD, Mo. — A Springfield woman got three felony charges after police performed a “check well-being” visit on Thursday, Sept. 22.
Ashley Olivia Bills, 33, of Springfield, was taken into custody and formally charged with three felonies: two counts of fourth-degree domestic assault and one count of resisting or interfering with an arrest for a felony.
According to a Springfield Police Department report, an officer visited a Springfield home to check the well-being of the people who lived there. Bills, who lived in a basement apartment in the home with two people in their 70s, was charged in 2020 with misdemeanor domestic assault and put on unsupervised probation for two years.
When the officer arrived, they were told that Bills had attacked the other people in the home by throwing an item at one and punching the other in the abdomen when they declined to wake up to take her to get food.
The officer told Bills that she was under arrest and was given the option to go to jail or the hospital. Bills refused to go to either, adding that she was a “vegetable” and unable to move or walk. The people Bills lived with told the officer that Bills could walk when she wanted to and had to climb stairs to change her clothes.
The officer then told Bills that she was going to jail. Bills began to pretend she was having trouble breathing and that she had passed out, according to the police report. The officer performed a sternum rub to keep her alert. Each time the officer did it, Bills grabbed the officer’s hand and asked them to stop.
More officers and a jail transport van were called to help get Bills to the jailhouse due to her size. Bills maintained that she could not walk or go to jail. Officers used control holds and pressure points to get her to comply, but she still wouldn’t walk, they said.
Officers carried Bills outside and placed her at the bottom of the entry stairs. Officers said Bills used her limbs to crab walk and lay down at the base of the stairs. Using a canvas sheet with handles, officers attempted to lift Bills into the van, but police said Bills used her arms to resist their efforts. It took three to four officers to get her to stop resisting “with vigorous strength” enough so that they could get handcuffs on her. After she was cuffed, she still resisted by contorting her body in such a way that the officers could not safely place her in the van.
A second van — this one with an open cargo area — was called and officers were able to lift Bills inside it. Once they arrived at the jailhouse, Bills began walking and was compliant.
Her criminal setting is scheduled for 9:30 a.m. Oct. 26. She is being held at the Greene County Jail, in part because during her booking she told officers “I’m not going to make those court dates.”
