Santa Fe woman arrested after Confederate flag dispute, neighbors at odds on where it flies
Santa Fe mom arrested for removing confederate flag off parent's property
A Santa Fe woman says she was wrongfully arrested after trying to remove a neighbor's confederate flag from off her parent's property. She says the neighbor who owns the flag harasses her and the police department did not handle the situation correctly. FOX 26's Sherman Desselle reports more on what she says she's been dealing with.
SANTA FE, Texas - A Santa Fe woman says she was wrongfully arrested after trying to remove a neighbor's Confederate flag from her parents' property.
Rosie Yanas lives next door to her 80 and 90-year-old parents. On the other side of her parents' fence hangs a confederate flag owned by their next-door neighbor on the opposite side.
"If this was solely on to his property we would not be here today," says civil rights attorney Randall Kallinen. "Not only is it right over there on the fence line, but it leans on over to the property of these people that Rosie's trying to take care of."
SUGGESTED: Confessed Santa Fe shooter remains incompetent to stand trial
Yanas says she has tried for years to get the neighbor to move the flag back over towards his side of the fence but claims he harasses her about it and intentionally flies it on the weekends to make sure they all see it. On Jan. 28, Yanas says without going on to her neighbor's property, she removed the flag that she claims was hanging over the fence.
Santa Fe police were called about the dispute and Yanas was arrested and charged with trespassing and resisting arrest. She denies those charges.
"I was tired of all this," says Yanas. "I don't have time to be dealing with him, and dealing with my parents, and dealing with my own life."
The 45-year-old is the mother of Chris Stone, a student who was killed in the 2018 Santa Fe High School mass shooting while trying to save others in the tragedy.
Family members of the flag-owning neighbor say it's not intimidation at all.
MORE: Santa Fe ISD Board votes against memorial built on school grounds to honor fallen students
"Anybody has the right to fly any kind of flag they want to fly," says the flag owner's brother, Ronny Turrentine. "If I want to show a flag out of my house that says kiss my a**, I have a right to do that."
The brother also says his family did not have anything to do with her being arrested last month. "If the wind's blowing right now at us, the flag will be in this direction. If it's flying out of the south, it would be in that direction. You can't control the wind," says Turrentine.
The Galveston County District Attorney's Office says they are still reviewing the facts of the case and have not yet made a decision about whether to proceed with any charges.