Woman mistook conservation club meeting for Trump rally

By Brandi Makuski

An Amherst Junction woman has been charged with disorderly conduct after allegedly smearing peanut butter on several vehicles parked outside what she mistakenly thought was a Donald Trump rally.

Christina Ferguson, 32, was arrested on Oct. 17 after disrupting what was actually a meeting of the Tomorrow River Conservation Club.

According to the complaint, Ferguson entered the meeting, which was being held on the 3900 block of Second St. in Amherst Junction, at about 9:30 PM on Monday, holding a jar of peanut butter and yelling at the club members about how much she hated the presidential candidate.

Ferguson left the meeting after being asked to do so, but after a few minutes one of the members suggested they check the parking lot to “make sure she wasn’t doing anything to their vehicles after leaving.”

As they went outside, one man saw Ferguson spreading peanut butter on a vehicle. He yelled at her, according to the complaint, and watched her walk into a nearby apartment complex. The man then called the Portage Co. Sheriff’s Office.

When deputies attempted to question Ferguson, a man at the apartment claimed she had been home all night and couldn’t have been involved in the incident. Ferguson also claimed she hadn’t left the apartment that night, and was repeatedly licking her fingers — indicating the presence of an edible substance on her fingers, according to the complaint — while talking to the deputy.

After being identified by a member of the conservation club, Ferguson then admitted to crashing the meeting and smearing vehicles with peanut butter. When asked why she did it, Ferguson become “very emotional”, according to the complaint, and talked about “how much she loved Hillary Clinton and hated Donald Trump.”

She also said she’d been “terrorized” by people who support Donald Trump.

“Peanut buttering is better than firebombing, and Trump plans on firebombing everybody in other countries,” she said, according to the complaint.

After the deputy explained to her that she’d actually interrupted the meeting of a nonprofit conservation organization, and that it was not a political meeting, she apologized and said she was “just fed up about the entire election.”

According to the complaint, Ferguson smelled of alcohol; she later admitted to drinking beer and blackberry brandy that night, and blew a .218 on the deputy’s breathalyzer.

The peanut butter Ferguson allegedly used in the incident was described in the deputy’s report as a “family-size jar of low-sodium, creamy natural Jif.”

“Fortunately it wasn’t chunky peanut butter, so vehicles didn’t get scratched,” said Chief Deputy Dan Kontos.