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Report's Topics: Bathroom Sex, Lawyer's Arrest, Fight

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By JOSH POLTILOVE | The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 22, 2008

Updated: 12/22/2008 05:21 pm

TAMPA - A lawyer was arrested at SideBern's on Saturday night because of events after a fistfight that started in the women's bathroom, police say.

After the scuffle, Brent Warren Yessin of Tampa insisted he was an attorney for all the parties, but the three people involved told officers he was not, police said.

Yessin continued to misrepresent himself and became argumentative before being arrested, according to a police report.

The fight occurred about 11 p.m. Saturday at the South Tampa restaurant at 2208 W. Morrison Ave.

One of the women police say was involved in the fight, Aimee Marie Dias, a lawyer, told police she opened the women's bathroom door and saw George Anthony Hochschwender and Jodi Jacolow having "sexual relations."

There was an argument and physical confrontation, and the fight spilled into the hallway, Dias told police. She said she and Jacolow went to the floor, rolling around and exchanging punches.

Hochschwender told police he was not having sex with Jacolow in the bathroom. According to the police report, Hochschwender said he is is gay and was upset that Jacolow "was calming him as a result of a poor relationship."

Hochschwender told police that Dias entered the bathroom, began yelling and then hit him on the face. The women then became involved in a physical confrontation, he told police, and that "spilled out into the hallway and then to the main bar floor."

Dias told police she did not hit Hochschwender and that he attacked her.

While police were sorting out the fracas, Yessin approached and presented himself as their attorney, police said. After police determined he wasn't and he continued to interfere, it escalated into his arrest, they said.

Yessin said he did not represent himself as an attorney for the trio but was defending his friend and neighbor, Jacolow.

"I wanted to make sure my friend wasn't getting harassed," Yessin said today.

Yessin, who practices labor and employment law, said he wanted to make sure Jacolow knew she should have legal representation if arrested.

Instead, it was Yessin whom police arrested.

Four officers tried to handcuff Yessin, but he resisted and was brought to the ground, police said.

"I didn't resist anything," Yessin said. "I got hit from behind."

Yessin said an officer told him he was interfering with the investigation. "If he said, 'I'm going to arrest you if you don't go inside,' I'd have gone inside. I was being the good guy, and I got my face in the turf."

Police noted that afterward there was a small, bleeding cut on Yessin's chin.

Yessin was charged with obstructing or opposing an officer without violence. His bail was set at $1,000. He has been released.

The women in the fracas chose not to press charges against each other, police said.

"I did see something in the bathroom," Dias said today. "Words were exchanged, and unfortunately it escalated."

Jacolow and Hochschwender could not immediately be reached for comment.

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