By DENISE MAYCOCK

Tribune Freeport Reporter 

dmaycock@tribunemedia.net

TWO sisters of Bahamian NBA star Buddy Hield were admonished by a magistrate yesterday after admitting charges of disorderly behaviour and fighting following a brawl at Grand Bahama International Airport two weeks ago.

Jalisa Hield, 35, an entrepreneur, and her sister Jaleta Hield, 31, a nurse, pleaded guilty before Magistrate Charlton Smith at Freeport Magistrate’s Court. He granted both an absolute discharge, and cautioned them against similar conduct in the future.

Magistrate Smith warned the sisters about the potential fallout for their family name.

“I think I heard you are maybe Buddy Hield’s sisters,” he said. They confirmed they were.

“He would not want the local or international media to know that this is going on with his family,” said the magistrate. “He recently came home to give back and do something positive. He would not want his reputation to be overshadowed by this. It is important how you carry yourself whether that’s your brother or not. But it is your own reputations you are sullying.”

The fight was captured on video and widely shared online. It showed the women punching and pulling each other’s hair as bystanders looked on. At one point, a man pulled one woman away while others tried to separate the rest. In the footage, one of the women is heard shouting: “F**king stupid to approach me.”

Magistrate Smith added: “It is unfortunate that three persons dressed up and looking good; what is the sense of looking good with bad character? What is the sense of looking good, all the nice pretty hair, jewellry, and clothes, and you carry yourself like that?”

He told the sisters their dispute should not have spilled into a public space, disrupting travellers and children.

“You are 35 and 31 years old. You are grown women,” he said. “You should know better,” he stressed.

Asked what they had learned, Jalisa, an entrepreneur, replied: “It will never happen again. I will walk away.” Jaleta, a nurse, also promised she would walk away in the future.

The magistrate added: “I trust this has been a valuable lesson. Do not find yourselves in similar circumstances again.”

Police said the incident happened around 11.20am on August 5. Officers were called to the airport about a fight, and later arrested the sisters, who were interviewed under caution before being charged.

A third woman, 35-year-old Donal Coakley, was also charged with fighting but pleaded not guilty. Prosecutors told the court that Coakley said one of the sisters put a phone to her face, and when she knocked it away, the women attacked her.

While the Hield sisters did not accept the prosecution’s version of events in full, their lawyer, Tashana Wilson, said they admitted to being involved in an altercation that disrupted the public. She argued the women, who have no previous convictions, wanted to avoid wasting the court’s time.

“This is something that was brewing I guess from a relationship from a domestic/civil side of it,” she said. “A phone call came in and Ms Hield did approach Ms Coakley and boxed the phone out of her hand and there was an altercation.

“This incident went viral and even aired on ZNS twice. The sisters are taking responsibility for what happened.”

Meanwhile, Coakley, an accounts worker at the Rand Memorial Hospital, confirmed she would proceed with her case. She was granted $500 bail, and her matter was adjourned to September 8.