This Guy Isn't Going to Jail After Allegedly Beating a Woman – but What Victim Got Him to Do Instead Is Unforgettable

The young man's unpleasant options were:

1. Get arrested and perhaps thrown in jail after being accused of beating a woman.

Or...

2. Sit all day in broad daylight at a busy intersection wearing a dunce cap and holding a humiliating sign.

Alisha Hessler gave Gabriel Urena the choice after she said he beat her last weekend.

Urena took option #2.

Image source: WVTV-TV

"I think it will teach him a lesson," she told WTVT-TV in Tampa. "I think he'll think twice about doing it again."

Hessler, 20, told Tampa police she and two friends brought along Urena — whom Hessler said she didn't know — for a night of clubbing. By the end of the night, Hessler said Urena was groping her in the back seat of a car, WFTS-TV in Tampa reported; when she refused his advances, she claimed he continued, so she hit him in order to get him to stop.

"I did hit him first and then all of a sudden that's when he started beating me repeatedly, punching me," Hessler told WTVT.

"We responded to her home. She did have visible injuries. The officer initiated a report for battery, and rescue personnel transported her to a local hospital," Tampa Police spokeswoman Janelle McGregor told WTVJ-TV in Miramar, Fla.

Image source: WVTV

Then Hessler, who said she received a concussion and a broken nose, came up with a different approach.

Finding Urena on Facebook, she gave him an ultimatum. Either have charges pressed against you...or hold a huge sign in public that reads, "I BEAT WOMEN. HONK IF I'M A SCUMBAG."

According to WTVT, Urena admitted off-camera that he was wrong and is sorry.

After the incident his Facebook page read: "Last night was a wakeup-call I seriously need change." Today it says, "I've quit drinking and doing anything negative..its time for change."

"I didn't want him to be locked up for a year," Hessler told WTVT. "I honestly don't think that would teach him anything."

Image source: WVTV

Mindy Murphy with the The Spring of Tampa Bay, an organization that helps prevent domestic violence and protects victims, told WTVT that Hessler's ultimatum wasn't the right approach.

Image source: WVTV

"There's so many problems with this," Murphy told WFTS. "Women die every day at the hands of abusers. Sexual assaults occur every day. The fact that we've got a guy sitting in a dunce cap with a sign on the side of the road really is trivializing a serious issue."

Hessler has left detectives a telephone message saying she didn't want to press charges, McGregor told WTVJ, although police said Hessler still must complete a complaint withdrawal form.

Here's a report from WTVT:

FOX 13 News

Here's a report from WFTS:

(H/T: The Daily Mail)

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