A child custody exchange at a Charlotte Chili’s turned violent this month when a 30-year-old father allegedly punched and bit the mother of his child after she tried to retrieve the girl from inside his car. Kemone Williams was arrested at the West Park Drive restaurant and charged with assault on a female, according to Charlotte Alerts News.
Per that report, Williams had put the child in his car during the handoff and told the child's mother he planned to take the girl out of state for extra days. When she tried to retrieve the child from inside the vehicle, Williams is accused of punching her in the face and biting her, the outlet reports. Employees and customers at the restaurant witnessed the altercation and called police, who arrested Williams at the scene.
What the Assault on a Female Charge Means
Under North Carolina General Statute § 14-33(c)(2), assault on a female is classified as a Class A1 misdemeanor — the state's highest misdemeanor level — and applies specifically when an adult male aged 18 or older assaults a female victim, according to Patrick Roberts Law. A conviction can carry up to 150 days in jail along with probation, fines, and court-mandated treatment or anger management programs, per the Glover Law Firm.
North Carolina also has a misdemeanor crime of domestic violence under § 14-32.5. Standard simple assault is a lesser Class 2 misdemeanor, while assault on a female is bumped up to Class A1 status based solely on the male defendant's age and the female gender of the victim, the same firm notes in a separate breakdown of the law.
The Hat and a Jail Policy Rooted in a Lawsuit Settlement
Williams wore a Jamaican-colored bob sleigh-style hat during his arrest, and the Mecklenburg County jail allowed him to keep it on for his booking photo, citing religious accommodation, according to Charlotte Alerts News. That policy traces back to September 2025, when the Mecklenburg County Sheriff's Office updated its detention center rules to let detainees keep religious head coverings on during booking photos and throughout detention, following a civil rights lawsuit settlement with CAIR after a Muslim detainee's religious headscarf was forcibly removed, as reported by WCNC Charlotte.
Resources Exist for Tense Custody Handoffs
Charlotte has designated Safe Exchange Zones for online purchase exchanges. The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department operates these zones, marked with red paint and monitored 24/7 by video surveillance, at more than a dozen QuikTrip locations, according to WSOC-TV. Mecklenburg County also runs a dedicated Supervised Visitation and Safe Exchange program at its Freedom Drive facility, offering a neutral, supervised environment specifically for high-conflict child custody transfers, per a domestic violence resource guide from Atrium Health.
The case also lands amid a troubling statewide trend. Domestic violence-related homicides across North Carolina surged 69.8% between 2018 and 2024, according to data from the North Carolina Coalition Against Domestic Violence released in March 2025 and reported by WCNC Charlotte.
It remains unclear whether a formal domestic violence protective order under Chapter 50B was in place between Williams and the child's mother, or whether any custody order was violated by his stated plan to take the child out of state. Under North Carolina law, knowingly violating a valid protective order is itself a separate Class A1 misdemeanor that authorizes police to make an immediate arrest without a warrant, according to the North Carolina Criminal Law Blog.
