OPD lead FBI in arrest of Olney woman

Olney Police recently assisted FBI agents in tracking down an Olney woman wanted for skipping a federal hearing in Los Angeles to determine whether she assaulted a fellow passenger on an international flight, Police Chief Dan Birbeck said.

The federal agents and OPD officers arrested Mercy Brown at a local residence and the agents transported her to a Wichita Falls jail, Chief Birbeck said. She then appeared at a hearing before a federal magistrate in Fort Worth, and was told to appear in federal court in Los Angeles, he said.

“She was on an international flight two years ago and was intoxicated and touched some people inappropriately. They landed and she got a citation for simple assault and she was told to appear in federal court in Los Angeles and never did,” he said.

Two years later, the Los Angeles federal judge issued a warrant for her and her address was in Olney, he said. The FBI bureau in Wichita Falls received the warrant and called OPD for help.

Mrs. Brown is a foreign national living in the United States on a permanent residency visa and is married to a U.S. citizen, he said.

“She was definitely surprised that federal agents were here to pick her up,” Chief Birbeck said. Neither Chief Birbeck nor the FBI agents had ever seen a federal warrant issued for a misdemeanor simple assault case, he said.

“The moral of the story is keep your hands off people in an airplane and if you don’t report [to court] they are coming to get you,” he said.