Laurel mother arrested and charged after allegedly punching umpire

A Laurel, Mississippi umpire is recovering after she was punched in the face following a softball game.

Kristie Moore says she was calling a 12-year-old softball game Saturday night, filling in after another umpire got sick. She says a mother was cursing so badly during the game that Moore asked her to leave.

Eventually, the mom left, but instead of going home, Kiara Thomas allegedly waited for Moore after the game. Moore says Thomas confronted her, punched her, and then ran away, but was quickly arrested. “It’s ridiculous. The verbal abuse and even now, I mean, it’s, it’s turned into physical abuse now also at this point, and, I mean, enough is enough. I mean, I also staff every USFA tournament for the state of Mississippi with umpires, and it gets harder and harder and harder every tournament to staff these tournaments because nobody one wants to listen to the verbal abuse and run the risk of what happened to me happening to them.”

Thomas is scheduled to be in court tomorrow. Her charge is a misdemeanor.

This year, a bill was introduced in the Mississippi legislature that would make assaulting a referee or umpire a felony aggravated assault. That bill died.

Kristie Moore hopes after this incident that lawmakers will take a second look.