The gay bashers in Philly have turned themselves in:
Three suburban Philadelphia defendants being charged in the beating of a gay couple during a late-night encounter on a city street have turned themselves in.
Police said 24-year-old Philip Williams, 24-year-old Kathryn Knott and 26-year-old Kevin Harrigan turned themselves in Wednesday morning. Prosecutors said they were being charged with criminal conspiracy and two counts each of aggravated and simple assault, and reckless endangerment.
The victims told police that a group hurled gay slurs and beat them when the two parties passed on the street on Sept. 11. One man suffered serious facial injuries, including an orbital fracture, and had his jaw wired.
Williams’ attorney Fortunato Perri Jr. said Wednesday after Williams surrendered to police that the case was not related to anyone’s sexual orientation, but was instead a “mutual confrontation” in which his client “was not the aggressor.”
Knott’s attorney, Louis Busico, has also denied that the dispute was motivated by anti-gay bias and said his client, whose family has a law enforcement background, neither threw any punches nor hurled any insults.
“She played no role in this other than going out to dinner with friends the night this happened,” Busico said outside Central Detectives on Wednesday. “We don’t deny that there was a gentleman who was assaulted. We don’t deny that this gentleman was injured. But I unequivocally deny that my client did anything to hurt this man; she wouldn’t hurt anybody.”
Ms. Knott doesn’t have just a family with a law enforcement background, he’s the Police Chief of Chalfont Township.
goblue72
Having grown up in Pennsyltucky, I can guarantee the attacks were motivated by homophobic douchebaggery.
dms
Sorry to be the “grammar” police, but nix the first “e” in the title.
CONGRATULATIONS!
Well, at least we know which one of the three will walk away scot-free, regardless if she was the instigator or threw every punch. Those other two guys are fucked.
Belafon
Maybe Jim Hoft will start using the x-rays from this attack to show how bad the cop in Ferguson was beat up.
jeffreyw
derp
goblue72
And let’s also not forget, that the City of Brotherly Love, is a metro area so awash in a backwards looking, head up their own rear ends dysfunction, that their entire economic development strategy is to sit on their hands until a city 100 miles to their north finally gets so overwhelmingly gentrified, that hipsters are willing to relocate to the boonies of Philly in search of housing.
Lee
I could be mixing up my homophobic beatings but isn’t there video of this?
The video I remember clearly shows the victims being actual victims.
aimai
What would make the conversations awkward? I presume that the sherriff daddy is 100 percent behind his little darling.
skerry
But back in Maryland, my Maryland, a police beating conviction was overturned by a judge whose husband was a police officer. The victim, a Univ of Maryland student, needed 8 staples to close a head wound. The unprovoked beating was captured on video.
So dinnertime at the police families homes will be fine.
catclub
@aimai: Well, if she is convicted, her loud complaints that Daddy promised she would get off scot-free. But that is only theoretical.
e.a.f.
oh, god that was so funny, Chief of Police’s daughter and they describe it as coming from a family with a police background. Oh, that spin doctor certainly earned their money.
Now most Chiefs of Police tend to teach their kids its best to get out of situations which will cost their parent their job.
if the kid/young adult wasn’t smart enough to follow those instructions, the other thing which springs to mind, is, the family thinks those sort of “occasions” are just o.k.
the daughter of a police chief might come to the conclusion it was not cool to be hanging around with 2 others getting into a fight with anyone. Oh, well this is America.
tom
It took a *really* long time for the daughter of the police chief to “turn herself in”.
mak
Heard a reporter on a local (Philly) newscast this morning quote one of Ms. Knott’s neighbors being “not surprised’ that she was involved in something like this. The reporter didn’t elaborate, but just moved on to another detail of the investigation. I thought that was kind of an odd detail to just leave hanging out there, but if there’s anything to it, I expect we’ll hear more in the coming days.
skerry
Also, related, the special grand jury in Ohio regarding the August Walmart shooting death of John Crawford by police has declined to issue any indictments against the officers. Walmart has released video of the incident (at the link).
The man was standing alone. No other people are in the video until the police rush in.
DOJ is going to investigate.
JGabriel
HuffPo:
Sounds like Knott’s friends ratted her out, while she’s denying everything.
Mike J
@skerry: Had he been carrying an actual rifle rather than a BB gun the NRA would be threatening to burn down the courthouse right now.
BGinCHI
@JGabriel: It does not say whether she kicked anyone, so maybe that’s the truth of it.
Villago Delenda Est
@Lee: Please, don’t let the facts get in the way of these upstanding citizens being totally innocent of douchecanoery in the first degree.
One is the daughter of a cop. They can’t possibly be involved in any douchecanoery. Relatives of cops are always, always innocent of crimes they’re caught on video committing.
Villago Delenda Est
@tom: Well, they were a bit slow coming up with an alternative theory of the incident, and detoxing all the douchecanoes.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
The storify suggests it’s going to get interesting. Not to mention calling dad to get a driver ticketed. That’s almost certainly a violation of the PA
LEADSCLEAN system. It’s to be used only in the course of official duties for an authorized law enforcement purpose, and in OH, certainly, daddy running a plate of driver who pissed off the princess is a clear violation.Serious deep shit for that action. At best a suspension or revocation of chief daddy’s operator authorization, perhaps including a penalty for the agency that employed him at the time. It could cost him his current LEO gig. It could be a crime as well; an OH LEO was convicted criminally for that kind of improper searching. He was also fired of course.
Bobby Thomson
@Mike J: Dream on.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@skerry: DOJ should investigate. Coincidentally, I had a lunch meeting today with an Ohio chief of police who told me the news. I was well behaved when he suggested it was a good outcome; we had non-profit agency business to discuss.
srv
guilt-by-association is good enough here, burn her!
Also, too:
https://storify.com/Clarknt67/meet-defendant-kathryn-knott
Belafon
@Bobby Thomson: It’s pretty obvious that the whole point of the phone call to police in the first place was that black men should not own guns.
Belafon
A video about it (can’t view it at work) is available at this Daily Kos link.
skerry
@Mike J: Ohio is, as I understand it, an open carry state. (at least for white men)
But this was a BB gun that was on the shelf in the toy department. Walmart sells lots of guns.
The video is shocking. Looks like murder to me.
skerry
@srv: Certainly an entitled little thing, isn’t she? And she likes her alcohol.
Her parents gave her a check instead of cash? So annoying. Makes it hard to buy the $130 shoes.
Mnemosyne
@skerry:
I was somewhat heartened that internet ammosexuals were actually on Crawford’s side despite the unsettling color of his skin. So there may be some kind of hope when it comes to police misconduct and douchecanoery.
RSR
Her twitter account is still active…not good.
RSR
oh, and here’s some coverage from Philly Mag; mug shots, and links to coverage of some of her twitter escapades.
http://www.phillymag.com/g-philly/2014/09/24/gay-bashing-mugshots-kathryn-knott-kevin-harrigan-philip-williams/
Also, a friend pointed out:
Hal
Question: even if the confrontation was “mutual” isn’t the fact that these two men were surrounded by multiple people and had the crap beaten out of them still indicate a crime?
Mutual in my mind is not you harassing someone, then beating them up when they don’t respond back with a thank you and have a good day sir! If someone called me a derogatory term, I tell them to go F themselves and then they and their friends beat me up, that’s still a crime.
Villago Delenda Est
@RSR: Exqueeze me? She tweets the x-rays of her patients?
Drunken and ethically void is no way to go through life, daughter.
Villago Delenda Est
@Hal:
Well, of course, unless you’re blah. Then your face is guilty of assaulting the fist of some racist asswipe.
mclaren
Prediction: the gay bashers will get probation because ‘they have suffered enough.”
Meanwhile, the people they brutalized will wind up crippled for life.
Yet another day in Shithole America.
SatanicPanic
@Villago Delenda Est:
Sounds like the PA Tea Party has a promising candidate
Cap'n Phealy
“Fortunato Perri Jr.”?
For the love of God, Montresor!
scav
“Surprised my Dad at work with a case of beer .and a card . “! Ol’ Law Enforcement background with a case of workplace beer?
oh pls. There’s so much there there it’s hard not to suspect a newbie screenwriter.
Roger Moore
@Villago Delenda Est:
Or pretty much anything but rich, white, straight, and privileged.
Sterling
Affluent thugs are the worst kind. Douchebags is too nice a word for them.
Mnemosyne
I think I can already predict the reaction of the jury: We can’t convict these (white, suburban, middle-class) people — it would ruin their lives!
Jebediah, RBG
@Mnemosyne:
Please, people, won’t anyone think of the violent aggressors? (Works best in the voice of Rev. Lovejoy’s wife)
Cacti
Does chief Karl Knott’s middle name also start with a K?
Just curious.
Also, I enjoyed Miss Knott’s tweet about how she brought dad a case of beer while he was on duty.
Start polishing up your resume, Chief Karl.
Cacti
@RSR:
Maybe some concerned citizen should bring this to the attention of the PA State Nursing Board.
delk
Daughter just suspended from hospital job because of her Twitter feed.
Calouste
Of course this will lead to awkward family dinners. Dad’s going to be mightily pissed off at his daughter because she got caught.
Laertes
@delk:
Delighted to hear it. Link?
skerry
@Laertes: Knott suspended link
ETA: Missed this earlier:
“One of the persons of interest questioned last week was an assistant basketball coach at Archbishop Wood High School. He resigned because of his alleged involvement, but he is not one of the three involved in the crime.”
shelley
So it was a ‘mutual confrontation’ but only the couple was beaten and bruised? What does Williams say provoked him into the ‘confrontation.’ The gay couple yelled, ‘Hey, you hetero;s!’
Gravenstone
Lead Noisemax headline; “Dinesh D’Souza: Feds Shot and Missed”. Stupid peckerhead is gonna keep running his mouth and get the court to gonna revisit his sentencing. Please motherfucker, please keep it up.
srv
When will he stop?
Villago Delenda Est
@Gravenstone: The Judge in the case may decide to revisit his sentencing decision.
“Oh, I see the regret you expressed in my courtroom seems to have evaporated once you got close to a microphone. We’ll see if some hard time will cause it to precipitate.”
Roger Moore
@srv:
Hopefully after declaring a San Gabriel Mountains NM here in Southern California. My Representative has been pushing for a National Recreation Area, but it’s been blocked by our worthless Congress. Let’s see some executive action!
sacrablue
@goblue72: Not surprising to me. I misspent most of my youth in Bucks County a very long time ago. Some things never change.
kc
And now for something completely different: An SC Highway Patrol trooper who shot an unarmed motorist (after pulling him for a seatbelt violation, YES HE WAS BLACK), was fired and is facing criminal charges. http://www.wltx.com/story/news/local/2014/09/24/state-trooper-who-shot-unarmed-man-facing-charges/16173045/
See, there is hope for South Carolina.
ETA: Edited to fix link
RaflW
She had nothing to do with the beating. Except being a material witness to criminal assault. Just that minor detail that she skips over for 10 days…
Howard Beale IV
@Cacti: HIPPA’s Federal.
Anton Sirius
@Villago Delenda Est: Actually the judge already said in his initial sentencing that D’Souza didn’t seem to “get it” and was showing no signs of accepting responsibility for his actions, what with all the BS he was spewing in the right-wing media. That’s why he’s stuck in a halfway house in the first place.
gbear
No Thugs In Our House! Are there, dear?
charluckles
@skerry:
Agreed.
I keep getting the feeling that things are going to get really ugly in flyover country.
Mike E
Bashin’ the queers: it puts the Love in the City of Brotherly! Y’all might know of the Mummers Parade that goes off every New Year’s Day…a friend of mine tells an amazing story of when he was working a music gig the night before and decided to stay up and take in the spectacle of this Philly tradition. Well, wearing makeup while not actually participating in the event in question is apparently a punishable offense because, while minding his own business, a group of drunken pipe-fitters and Naval Yard workers were incensed by the sight of my long-ish haired, eyeliner-wearing friend that they proceeded to chase him down the narrow alleys that characterize the place…oh, I forgot to mention that they were dressed up as women and clowns! Another friend was just passing by so the story could be corroborated; he saw our friend booking out of an alleyway, shouting, “I’ll call you later!” closely followed by several of the festively dressed Mummers yelling, “Faggot!” He got away nearly unscathed.
Moral: don’t be caught dead, or beautiful, in Phila, on New Year’s Day.
Mnemosyne
@kc:
It does often seem that Highway Patrol types get held to a higher standard than regular cops. I’m not really sure why, but I like it.
The Snarxist Formerly Known as Kryptik
@charluckles:
This carries the implication that it isn’t already ugly in flyover country.
maya
@srv:
He should name it the Ronald Reagan Marine Preserve just for effect.
some guy
Read today that the US bombing campaign against ISIS has expanded to bombing of the Khorosan cell of al Nusrah Front. Way to go, Obama.
Botsplainer
Tennessee Conservatism:
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/open-carry-activist-tennessee-school
This dumb fuck is marching around outside schools with a high cap mag rifle and in body armor. If that was my kids’ school, rather than getting ineffectual police talks and no charges, he’d be in a hospital, eating through a straw.
Cacti
@Howard Beale IV:
I’m aware.
But ethical codes for licensed medical professions usually include something about patient privacy/confidentiality.
ranchandsyrup
The twitter detective has been takings some heavy fire over there. He’s a traitor, snitch, liar, etc. Predictable.
tybee
no, no there isn’t.
Schlemazel
When I lived in FLorida there was a case of two couple who attacked & beat a black waiter. The big thing there (It may be in other places but never happens in Minnesota) was for the cops to walk the handcuffed perps across a parking lot at the jail so that the TV cameras could film them & shout questions. One at a time they led the 2 men across the parking lot & their stories were pretty close to the one these perps told. “It wasn’t race based, he started it, I never hit him”. Then they le to to ladies across & got “That n*ger had it coming! He should have stayed out of our way”. Would not have wanted to be their lawyer after that idiocy but it was one time I was glad for the perp walk stunt down there.
shortstop
@aimai: Exactly. Chick likely learned this stuff in the cradle. Someone tried to interview the neighbors. No one would go on record, but they did say they “weren’t surprised.”
As for Knott not having participated, there were 10-12 people there and only three got charged. I presume that’s because those are the only three against whom Philly police felt they had solid evidence.
shortstop
@Howard Beale IV: State boards of nursing handle ethics complaints against nurses licensed in their states. Violating HIPAA (not HIPPA, please) is most certainly in their ken, regardless of the act being federal.
@Cacti: Not just usually, but always. ;) Girl’s in for a world of hurt. She will not keep her license and she may be prosecuted.
Mnemosyne
@Howard Beale IV:
Right, but every medical facility has policies in place about HIPAA violations because they don’t want the feds coming after them. A bunch of employees got fired at Cedars-Sinai last year for HIPAA violations and UCLA had to pay almost $1 million to the federal government for their employees’ violations. My husband works for a company that sends drugs to your house and if they so much as put the wrong paperwork in the box, they have to report it to the state, the feds, and to the parent company.
WereBear
I am flat out stunned that a medical “professional” would tweet anyone’s x-rays.
kc
@tybee:
Well, stay in Georgia.
daize
@Mike E: Townhall is hiring. Check them out.
gwangung
@WereBear:
Well, you must consider the culture of the perpetrators. Is it the lack of positive male role models in their community? Could it be their culture of violent video games? Are prominent leaders like Shepard Smith going to address the endemic violence in their neighborhoods? (Is it cultural or are they just predisposed to this kind of behavior?)( I’m inclined to think it was a culture of violence, given Ms. Knott’s background).
If there was only a smartphone app for innocent victims to avoid such unruly neighborhoods…
Mike E
@daize: But my stories are true, and I’m not conservative…no thanks, sport!
Chi
“She (Kathryn Knott) played no role in this other than going out to dinner with friends the night this happened,” Busico said outside Central Detectives on Wednesday.
Yeah Right!
She was part of a gang of 12+ people, all interviewed by police. Only 3 have been charged. If she and the other 2 men were innocent and/or just bystanders (like the other 10+ bystanders in the group), did the gay couple just pummeled themselves to the ground?
Something tells me the rest of the group named these 3 as the main culprits and will testify in order to avoid charges, national public backlash and have their lives COMPLETELY ruined!
There has to be more than 3 who actively assaulted the couple but I believe the charges that these 3 are the main offenders and should deserve all the firestorm scrutiny, public backlash and 9/11/14 beating tied to them for the rest of their lives!
WereBear
@gwangung: Funny how it’s not their fault when they are “certain kinds of people.”