'Playboy' model guilty of obstructing police

TAMPA -- A Playboy model and classical dancer who said Temple Terrace police roughed her up during a traffic stop was found guilty today of obstructing or opposing an officer without violence.

Rebecca Reyes, 21, was sentenced to 12 months probation, 48 hours of community service and a $500 fine.

"Her attitude on the night in question is her problem," County Judge Thomas Barber said.

Temple Terrace police said Reyes didn't stop when an officer tried to pull her over in December 2007 for driving without tail lights. When she finally stopped and the officer said he was going to write her a ticket, she got out of her truck, said police spokesman Michael Dunn. She refused to get back in her truck despite officers asking her four times.

Dunn said she tried to walk away, then became belligerent and shoved one of the officers at the scene when he took hold of her arm and told her to stay put.

"She would not stop trying to pull away from us," Officer William W. Cooper testified today.

But Reyes disputed the official version of events, saying she never left the side of her truck and was not violent with the officers.

"Temple Terrace police have something to hide," Reyes' attorney, Jay Herbert, said during his opening statement today. "My client was physically abused by law enforcement that day. They escalated a simple, simple taillight ticket."

Reyes goes by the name of Reby Sky and has appeared in Playboy, GQ and other magazines. She said the officers threw her up against the hood of a patrol car and threw her to the ground.

She worried that a large gash on her shoulder might result in a career-ruining scar.

-- Colleen Jenkins, Times staff writer