Reality TV Updates

Busted on Armed & Famous all I got was a T-Shirt?

Armed & Famous producers are using T-shirts and money to persuade criminal suspects to sign waivers that allow the show to broadcast their faces.

This tactic has at least some community members concerned that the show’s celebrity cops are taking advantage of low-income residents — and possibly targeting the neighborhoods they live in.

“No amount of money is worth the pain and hurt that I’m feeling as a parent,” Dorothy Woods told The Star Press.

Woods’s son, Terence Walker, 23, 222 W. Centennial Ave., Apt. F2, agreed to appear on Armed & Famous in exchange for $150 cash after he was arrested Thursday night on a warrant and misdemeanor marijuana charge by several Muncie police officers.

The officers included “celebrity cops” Trish Stratus, Wee Man and Erik Estrada.

Armed & Famous is an upcoming CBS reality show in which Estrada, Wee Man, Stratus, La Toya Jackson and Jack Osbourne become gun-carrying Muncie cops.

CBS publicist Kelli Raftery issued a statement Monday night confirming that Armed & Famous has been paying some people to sign the waiver, officially known as a “likeness release.”

“This release form has no effect or impact on the arrest or the bond,” Raftery wrote. “A nominal fee in exchange for a likeness release is not typical, but is certainly not unprecedented.”

Woods, who lives on the city’s north side, said she believes Armed & Famous is spending a disproportionate amount of time in black and poor neighborhoods on the city’s south side.

From the beginning of the project, however, Muncie Police Chief Joe Winkle has said the celebrities would be placed in districts throughout the entire city.

Winkle denied any perception that the show was taking advantage of low-income residents, and said his department was not involved in the waiver process.

“We are just going where we get called and policing like we would any other time,” Winkle said. “If you don’t want to be on TV, say ‘No.’”

Police arrested Walker at a gas station at Madison and Wysor streets, near downtown, after at least one officer apparently recognized him as being wanted.

A part-time baker at a restaurant, Walker failed to pay $381 in court fees in connection with a February misdemeanor conviction for carrying a handgun without a license, and a warrant had been issued for his arrest in May.

Police also reported finding marijuana on Walker.

Walker initially denied requests to sign the waiver while he was sitting handcuffed in a police cruiser, he said.

But when a producer offered him $150 and reportedly told him he would appear on television anyway, Walker said he tried to make the best of a bad situation.

“That way it wouldn’t be all on my family,” Walker said, referring to the $630 in fees and bail bond that he needed to get out of jail.

In retrospect, Walker said on Monday he wished he hadn’t signed the waiver.

Other reports of financial coercion have surfaced since the celebs took to the streets last week.

Delaware County’s day shift emergency dispatch supervisor Harold Mason reported receiving a phone call Monday morning from a woman who was recently pulled over by a celebrity cop and wanted to know where to get her $100.

“I referred her to the chief’s office,” he said.

Philip Vore, 36, 1505 N. Granville Ave., has accused city police of holding him under arrest in an empty room at the Delaware County Jail, where he said they refused to officially book him until he signed the waiver, Vore’s attorney Michael Quirk said.

Winkle denied the allegation.

Vore eventually agreed to sign the waiver in exchange for $400 — money he has yet to see, his attorney said.

They initially offered the man a T-shirt that said “I got arrested by a celebrity and all I got is this lousy T-shirt,” Quirk said.

“I think he thought it was kind of insulting,” Quirk said.

Quirk also alleged that police and producers continued to question Vore after he asked for an attorney and that the producers refused to leave his property upon request.

“I think the City of Muncie has set themselves up for embarrassment and lawsuits and all kinds of problems,” Quirk said.

Vore was wanted on a warrant out of Delaware Circuit Court 1 for testing positive for marijuana in several drug screens, a violation of the terms of his pre-trial home detention.

Vore is awaiting trial on charges of forgery.

Quirk said the positive screens are the result of marijuana his client smoked before his placement on detention, and that test results showed the levels of THC were declining.

On Monday Vore tested negative for THC and Vorhees released the man from jail, Quirk said.

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