UK Diplomat Charged With Assaulting Police Officer & Child Endangerment On Broadway In Nashville

Forget Iran and Israel, Nashville has its own foreign affairs crisis to deal with.

A diplomat from the United Kingdom was arrested over the weekend in Nashville after apparently causing quite the scene on Broadway.

According to WKRN, officers in downtown Nashville were flagged down on Sunday evening by a security guard after an overly-intoxicated man was spotted with three young children. The man then became combative when he was confronted by police, who tried to put him in handcuffs and sit him down (as much for his own good as anything).

But the man tried to walk away, and bit a police officer on the arm after they continued to restrain him. He also reportedly made derogatory comments about the officers’ religion and nationality, which is honestly kinda funny to think about a diplomat coming over here and getting so drunk that he just starts insulting the country.

Anyway, the man was identified as 43-year old Roberto Francesco Mirto, who (at least as of 2019) served as a counsellor for the British Embassy. He was arrested and taken to the hospital for a blood draw before being booked into the Metro Nashville jail on misdemeanor charges of public intoxication, disorderly conduct, resisting arrest, and child endangerment, as well as a felony count of aggravated assault on an officer, before being released yesterday afternoon on a $22,000 bond.

Mirto was unable to tell officers who could take care of his children, who were reportedly ages 10, 7 and 3, and arrangements had to be made to keep them safe while Mirto was locked up.

It appears that he’s scheduled to appear in court tomorrow afternoon for a review hearing, but there’s no doubt the British Embassy is scrambling right now to try to get things taken care of as soon as possible. There are already enough international problems to deal with that are more important than a guy getting blackout drunk on Broadway on a Sunday afternoon.

Of course it’s not uncommon to see people do stupid things when they get drunk on Broadway. Just a couple weeks ago, a woman was arrested for throwing a beer bottle off the rooftop of a downtown Nashville bar in an incident that had everybody breaking out the Morgan Wallen chair jokes.

And one guy almost learned the hard way why you don’t want to get too obliterated on Broadway after a woman was arrested for stealing his $30,000 Rolex after he invited her home with him after a night of partying.

In that incident, police say officers were dispatched to a rental unit where they met with the victim, who told them that he had taken off his $30k Rolex Daytona watch and placed it under a hat on his nightstand while he went to the bathroom.

When he came back, he saw the woman he had brought back – identified as 24-year old Audrey Schump – reaching towards the watch and leaving the room.

The police affidavit stated:

“The victim states that he came back to the bedroom from the bathroom and observed the defendant reaching over the bed towards where his watch was located. The victim states that the defendant then abruptly left the room.”

Though she fled from the Airbnb, the victim gave police a description of what she was wearing and they were able to track her down near the rental unit. And after taking her into custody, they found the pricey timepiece that she had taken from the owner.

Schump was charged with felony theft over $10,000, and released on a $25,000 bond.

Let this be a lesson for everybody going out on Broadway: You’ve gotta keep your head on a swivel. I know it seems like an adult Disneyland where everybody’s just getting drunk and looking for somebody to hook up with while they’re in town, but there are a lot of people down there ready to take advantage of those drunk people and make some quick cash – or worse – while hoping that their victim is too embarrassed to report their crimes to the police (or they’re looking for married men in hopes that they don’t want to get caught either).

Well that, and also foreign diplomats who are apparently experiencing Broadway for the first time and don’t realize how quickly those $14 beers sneak up on you.The post UK Diplomat Charged With Assaulting Police Officer & Child Endangerment On Broadway In Nashville first appeared on Whiskey Riff.