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“Tigger” Safe from Charges
From orlandosentinel.com:
Tigger, the Walt Disney World character, is no longer in the cross-hairs of the State Attorney’s Office.
No charges will be filed against 31-year-old Michael J. Fedelem, the employee playing Winnie the Pooh’s bouncy friend, the State Attorney’s Office announced today.
Prosecutors reviewed the complaint that Tigger punched a 14-year-old during a home-video session at Disney-MGM Studios last month.
I’m happy to hear that the right decision was made in this situation. It was pretty clear in the video that Tigger was not at fault of anything except making sure his head wasn’t torn off by a scheming family. Tigger should sue the family for defamation of character.
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I’m glad to hear about this as well. He really should sue them, haha.
I agree. I hope this family will rethink any civil suit. I also think that Disney had a great suit against the family for defamation. At the very least, the family should be made to apologize to Disney and especially the cast member.
While I agree that no charges needed to be filed, I would be surprised if he retained his job with Disney. I don’t see any possible way to excuse a cast member raising a fist against a guest, no matter that the kid was trying to pull off his costume. You can argue that the cast member was having trouble breathing, he was going to fall, maybe they were taunting him — it really doesn’t matter, those are things the costumed characters have to deal with — you can’t lose your cool and come out swinging. I don’t think Disney will ignore that and they shouldn’t.
Is there any “official” word on if he is still working with Disney? It’s great that he won’t face charges, but the guy definitely doesn’t deserve to lose his job. Mark made a good point, but he shouldn’t be fired. Maybe transfered?