Nikita Dragun
A popular social media influencer was arrested Monday after allegedly causing a ruckus at a Miami area hotel and swinging a water bottle at both a policer officer and security guard. Nikita Dragun, 26, was booked into the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center.
Charges are battery on a law enforcement officers (a felony), disorderly conduct (a misdemeanor), and battery (a municipal ordinance violation).
Police responded to 601 Washington Avenue — the Goodtimes Hotel — about a woman “causing a disturbance and being extremely disorderly within the establishment,” documents say. According to cops, security claimed that she had been causing that disturbance “for a long period of time and was walking around the pool area unclothed.”
Authorities said the behavior was disrupting the “normal flow of business.”
Security told her to stop. In response, she allegedly kept acting out and threw water at a staff member, officers said.
Cops described arriving at the scene and escorting her to her room. Police claimed to hear loud music being played from her hotel room. Authorities said they knocked on the door several times and identified themselves as Miami Beach police. Dragun opened the door, investigators said.
Security said that she needed to stop or else be in danger of being asked to leave.
Dragun allegedly shut the door on police, but opened it again a short time later, and told a guard “Do you want more?” Cops claim she swung an open water bottle, causing the water to “hit and spill” on an officer and also a guard.
Dragun is a popular influencer, who wears her life as a trans woman on her sleeve. Video circulating online shows that she was being held at a men’s unit.
Nikita Dragun is being kept in a men’s unit after being arrested in Florida. While she’s most likely in protective custody, it’s concerning that Florida jails have such poor protocols to deal with trans folks. Also the judge’s lack of empathy is outrageous pic.twitter.com/mDiR6p3nuT
— Def Noodles (@defnoodles) November 9, 2022
She was reportedly held on a $2,000 bond.
“The situation with Nikita, who is legally female, being placed in a men’s unit of a Florida jail is extremely disturbing and dangerous,” Dragun spokesman Jack Ketsoyan said in a statement. “This decision made by the Miami-Dade County Corrections Department directly violates their protocol, which mandates that transgender inmates are classified and housed based on safety needs and gender identity. Nikita has been released and is now safe. Thank you for respecting her privacy during this time.”
Note: We added the statement from Ketsoyan.
[Image via Emma McIntyre/Getty Images for YouTube Beauty]
