2009 August, 12th

Phil Butler

In news from Disney World – Orlando, reports indicate Mickey Mouse is furious over the light sentence given to a man convicted of “groping” long time squeeze Minnie Mouse.

Earlier this week in Orange County Florida a 60 year old PA man, John William Mover, was convicted of misdemeanor battery for having groped Brittney Duncan McGoldrick’s (the girl playing Minnie) breasts and bottom at a character greeting session at the Magic Kingdom. Mickey, who was seething to see Mover receive a maximum sentence (or the chair), is unavailable for comment at this time. However, our reporter on the scene said that though Pluto was remaining tight lipped about the who affair, Goofy spilled the beans on Mickey’s current state of angst.

Mover and his attorney Zahra Umansky maintained his innocence throughout the trial, but the judge and jury ignored his pleas of innocence and convicted him of the battery charge. The incident happened as Mover. a grandfather, did a photo pose in front of the resorts Toon Town attraction. Wearing her traditional red polka dot dress, Minnie (played by McGoldrick) later related that no matter what she did she could not get Mover to take his hands off of her.

Mover, picture left in court, got off pretty lightly in my book. I mean the reader has to consider what kind of a person would do this in front of not only the young lady inside the costume, but those around the characters when he did it. This says nothing about him being a parent and grandfather on vacation too. Aside the tongue and cheek reporting here, the story is actually a pretty sad example of how demented and warped some people actually are. McGoldrick’s exact words, spoke through tears to the court were:

‘I was doing everything I could to get his hands off my breasts. So, I did everything I could and pushed them down.’

The maximum sentence for Mover is maximum jail sentence of one year in jail and a $1250 fine, but it looks like Mover will be forced to write a letter of apology, serve supervised probation for 6 months, do 50 hours of community service (let’s hope not near cartoon characters), and submit to psychological treatment. As for Mickey’s ire over the whole situation, no one came blame one of the world’s most loved characters. One would think these sweet representations out of the imagination of Disney himself would be fairly immune to such crass and forward treatment.

This reporter would no be surprised to hear of Mickey Donald, Goofy, Pluto, and a host of other characters setting out on a lynching party for Mover after such a light sentence. All levity aside, I would have expected the judge to levy a tougher pill to swallow for Mover as well. The video below is added for context, look at all the little kids around Minnie! This guy should have been sent on a permanent voyage on 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea.

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About the Author

Phil Butler is editor-in-chief of Everything PR and senior partner at Pamil Visions PR. He’s a widely cited authority on beta startups, search engines and public relations issues, and he has covered tech news since 2004. Phil wrote in the past for ReadWriteWeb, Mashable, Profy, SitePoint, Search Engine Journal, AltSearchEngines. Follow Phil on Twitter or send him an email at phil [at] pamil-visions [dot] com.

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