Reese Witherspoon Told Officer She’s Allowed To ‘Stand On American Ground’ Before Arrest

Reese Witherspoon may be embarrassed about her tirade at a police officer who arrested her husband for DUI this weekend, but the actress has a solid defense — she was just an US citizen standing on American soil.

Witherspoon was arrested for getting out of a car during husband Jim Toth’s arrest in Atlanta, despite a police officer’s repeated warnings for her to stay put.

Reese Witherspoon’s reason for disobeying the order? She was just a citizen exercising her right to stand on American ground.

A full text of Witherspoon’s police report was published this week from the arrest early on Friday. Toth was driving in the wrong lane then proceeded to fail a field sobriety test.

Here is a portion of Officer J. Pyland’s report, via AccessAtlanta.com:

“I had to tell Mrs. Witherspoon several times to get back into the vehicle before she did so. I told Mrs. Witherspoon that I would arrest her the next time she got out of the vehicle. I finished HGN with Mr. Toth. I went and explained to Mrs. Witherspoon the reason why I wanted her to stay in the vehicle. The reason was for my safety. Mrs. Witherspoon stated, ‘Yes sir.’ I went back to Mr. Toth and continued field sobriety.”

But Reese Witherspoon did not stay there, Pyland noted.

“Mrs. Witherspoon got out of the vehicle and walked up to me and Mr. Toth. I asked, ‘What had I already told you? Mrs. Witherspoon asked what was going on.

“I told Mrs. Witherspoon that Mr. Toth was under arrest. I told Mrs. Witherspoon to get back into the car. Mrs. Witherspoon stated that she was a ‘U.S. Citizen’ and that she was allowed to ‘stand on American ground.’ I put my hands on Mrs. Witherspoon’s arms to arrest her. Mrs. Witherspoon was resistant but I was able to put handcuffs on her without incident due to Mr. Toth calming her down.”

It was then that Reese Witherspoon uttered the infamous “Do you know my name?” threat to Pyland that made her the subject of many jokes.

Jimmy Kimmel seized on the line after Reese backed out of an appearance on his show.

Kimmel said: “The police report says she asked the cop ‘Do you know my name? You’re about to find out who I am.’ Does that ever work? ‘Do you know who I am?’ is the second only to ‘Do you know who my father is?!’ ”

He added, “It’s a bad question because the answer is either ‘no’ — which is embarrassing — or ‘yes, and you’re going to jail.’ ”

Reese Witherspoon didn’t let the arrest get her down for too long, however. She was back promoting her new film within a day.