SAN ANTONIO – When Wendy Cummings returned from lunch while serving jury duty on Tuesday, sheriff's deputies at the building's security checkpoint found what appeared to be a variation of brass knuckles in her purse.
Cummings, the mother of two toddlers, said she carries the device -- a 3-inch piece of metal with sharp points -- in her purse for self-defense purposes.
"As soon as he pulled it out, I said, ‘Oh, my God, I'm sorry. I'm not a criminal,'" Cummings said.
She said she offered to throw them away or return them to her car but the deputy refused and placed Cummings under arrest.
"I put my hands behind my back, he cuffed me and shackled my feet and said, 'This is a third-degree felony,'" she said.
Cummings said she was taken before a judge, who set her bond at $1,000 and she was transferred to the magistrates office in a paddy wagon. She said she was forced to sit alongside a man who told her he was a child-abusing sex offender.
"It was so scary," Cummings said. "I just kept thinking, 'When am I going to tell my husband?'"
Her husband, who is in the military, was contacted and posted her bond. She wasn't released until 4:30 a.m. on Wednesday, she said.
"She was treated like anyone would be treated when they're placed under arrest," sheriff's spokesman James Keith said when questioned about Cummings' arrest. "We have a zero-tolerance policy for bringing these types of items into the courthouse."
"I understand that I shouldn't have had those, I do. I get that," Cummings said. "I'm not saying that I should have been allowed to carry those into the courthouse."
What she said she did not understand is why she was treated like a common criminal.
"I was stripped of my dignity," she said.
She is due in court to face the charges on Aug. 12.