A Missouri woman is suing Disney Parks and the Orange County Sheriff’s Office after she was arrested at Magic Kingdom. But the guest claims she was experiencing a medical emergency and was refused help.
Woman Suing Disney and Orange County Sheriff’s Office
According to the arrest report, deputies responded to a disturbance at the Magic Kingdom bus area around 9:35 p.m. on April 11, 2025. There, Halen Holton engaged in a heated argument with a Disney security manager.
Security issued a trespass warning and asked her to leave. She refused multiple times and deputies tried to detain her but she resisted. She was ultimately arrested and charged with trespass after warning, disorderly intoxication, and resisting an officer without violence. She was transported to Orange County Jail, where she was described as uncooperative during booking.
Holton’s side of the story is very different, however. She describes repeatedly asking for help as multiple cast members, police officers, and corrections officers denied her care, mocked her, and physically hurt her.
In the affidavit shared by WDW Active Crimes, Holton says after her group arrived at Walt Disney World, a “domestic violence incident occurred, and the individual involved left.” Holton got on a bus and asked a cast member for help after getting lost. “Instead of following proper protocol for domestic violence, they had a third-party taxi take us to our car and even follow us off the property, implying it would be safer for us to leave but not required.”
Holton calls the incident “deeply problematic” and it left her and those with her “feeling vulnerable and confused.”
They eventually booked a room at Disney’s Yacht Club Resort, “hoping for better security.”
That evening at Magic Kingdom, Holton states she began experiencing a medical emergency with “confusion, weakness, feeling faint, and overheating.” This made navigating the park difficult and she couldn’t operate her phone.
She told a bus driver that she was having a medical emergency and asked him to please call 911. The bus driver said, “I have to finish my shift,” and other cast members laughed, the affidavit states.
Holton felt like her legs were going to buckle and that her “body was shutting down.” She said “this was not normal for me and that I have medical issues and over 10 doctors.” Ultimately, the driver said water and help were coming and Holton believed him, but no help came.
Instead, the police arrived. Holton says she remained “polite” and “cooperative” but they “continued to deny me care and be argumentative.”
“I will never understand them not getting an ambulance,” Holton wrote. “[E]ventually I tried to leave to get water and medical attention on my own.”
Then, a red-headed officer prevented her from leaving. Holton told her sister to start recording and the police “didn’t like that.” They arrested Holton and placed her in a hot police car, which worsened her potential heat stroke.
“I truly thought I was going to die, my body feeling lifeless,” Holton said. She began “saying my goodbyes” to the car’s camera.
An officer then turned on the air conditioning after being instructed to do so amid Holton’s screaming.
The police deliberated on potential charges, then let Holton out of the car, where she screamed for help.
The police then put her back in the car without air conditioning or open windows. They said they would send her to the hospital in a taxi but Holton “feared being roofied” and begged for an ambulance.
The “argumentative officer” who Holton says was taunting her grabbed her by the hair. The officers implied her symptoms may have been from an unspecified substance and tried to force her into a taxi.
Holton’s sister was also experiencing “confusion and memory loss” at this point. She asked for medical attention and was denied.
Holton was transported by an officer to Orange County Jail. On the way, she expressed her confusion about not receiving help and worry for her sister. She checked that there was body camera footage so she knew the incident was recorded “in case I died”.
When walking up to the jail, she confirmed again, “Water and medical attention?” The officer allegedly said, “Shut up,” and walked away.
At the jail, nurses and corrections officers continued to ignore Holton’s pleas for medical attention and used “excessive force.” An officer gripped Holton so hard it left a visible bruise and four to six officers “wrestled” her into a cell. She was wearing handcuffs that were “crushing” her fingers and wrists with all the officers on top of her.
A corrections officer with a camera yelled, “Misdemeanor!” and told the others to not use so much force.
Officers allegedly ripped off Holton’s clothes and mocked her body, calling her “another OD
dead white girl who was going to die in there.”
Holton said she didn’t do drugs and has a history of organ failure, complicated pregnancies, and chronic pain, but they laughed at her.
Holton said she shouted her sister’s and daughter’s names and begged other inmates to tell her family what happened if she didn’t make it out.
She asked for use of a wheelchair that she could see nearby, stating she used a wheelchair at Disney, too.
She used the water at the sink to cool down but the water was then allegedly turned off. She instead used soiled toilet water. Another corrections officer saw Holton’s state and gave her fresh clothes and a juice box.
Holton’s troubles continued through the night and next day. She said she had an accident on her clothes and was initially denied another pair of clothes. She did not have shoes or a blanket.
An officer finally brought her food and drinks at 6 p.m. the next day.
An officer from the previous evening asked if she remembered anything and Holton said, “Yes, I remember begging you all for help repeatedly.”
She was taken to processing and given paperwork that stated she had a “safe time in jail with no incidents,” that her arrest was due to an argument with her sister, and that she was “unable to participate in the defense or speak to the prosecutor.”
She asked to use the phone but was told she didn’t need a lawyer because she was bonded out. She requested treatment and was then placed back in her cell.
Before allowing her to leave, a corrections officer demanded Holton clean a “help” message she had tried to write on the wall.
Holton was finally released and immediately went to a Daytona AdventHealth hospital.
Holton concluded, “This has left me extremely traumatized and I needed to have family help take care of me and find a specialized therapist and psychiatrist along with treating the physical damage done to my body. This was attempted to be minimized and resulted in a falsified incident report and now an ongoing internal affairs investigation.”
The lawsuit seeks $50,000 in damages per count, along with punitive damages and injunctive relief.
The complete affidavit submitted by the plaintiff can be found here.
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