By Joe Burchell and C.J. Karamargin ARIZONA DAILY STAR Posted on 04/26/2005 6:16:15 AM PDT by Kokojmudd
By Joe Burchell and C.J. Karamargin ARIZONA DAILY STAR
Criminal charges have been refiled against two men accused of throwing cream pies at conservative political columnist Ann Coulter during a speech at the University of Arizona last year.
Phillip Edgar Smith, a UA political science major, and William Zachary Wolff, both 24, were charged in Pima County Justice Court with misdemeanor assault, disorderly conduct and criminal damage last Tuesday, said Dan Benavidez, spokesman for the County Attorney's Office.
Similar charges against the pair were dismissed on March 18 after neither the arresting officer nor Coulter appeared to testify against them. Both Coulter and a UA police spokesman said the County Attorney's Office failed to properly notify them of the trial.
The law doesn't require crime victims to appear.
Coulter criticized the County Attorney's Office in her nationally syndicated column for dropping the charges and suggesting her non-appearance was one of the reasons.
She also disputes prosecutor David Berkman's contention that she never contacted his office about the resolution of her case.
Although Berkman said Coulter was sent multiple notices of the trial, Coulter said in her column that all of them "were apparently sent telepathically."
In the same column, she acknowledges receiving at least one notice, which she called "the only notice I ever received about my appearing at the trial."
She quotes from her response to that notice, asking about the trial date and whether her appearance was really necessary, as evidence that she did respond to Berkman.
Coulter said the only other notice she got was a postcard telling her the case had been dismissed.
Berkman said that if Coulter got the dismissal postcard, she should have gotten other notices because they were sent to the same address.
UA police Sgt. Eugene Mejia also blamed the County Attorney's Office for his officers not appearing at the trial.
Mejia said the officers called a special verification line used by police to be sure of which officers are required to show up for court the next day. The officers called, and their names were not listed, he said.
Benavidez said he didn't know why the officers' names weren't listed, other than noting that with nearly 33,000 misdemeanor cases last year and seven prosecutors, it's possible something was missed.
Smith said he was disappointed to learn the charges would be refiled.
Both he and Wolff denied a claim in an earlier Coulter column that they "suffered bloody noses and broken bones" when they were apprehended after throwing a pair of tofu cream pies at Coulter, and missing, as she addressed about 2,500 people on the UA campus in October.
Mejia said police reports didn't indicate either was injured.
Coulter, in an e-mail to the Star, said her comment was based on what she was told by "eyewitnesses," but she added, "I am not a medical professional, nor did I examine the defendants personally."
Coulter also said the Star didn't try to contact her for comment about the dismissal and her non-appearance.
A Star reporter called Coulter at 4:45 p.m. on April 15 at the Universal Press Syndicate in New York. With the three-hour time difference, the office was closed.
Questions for this story had to be e-mailed to her editor, who obtained answers and then e-mailed them back. No direct contact with Coulter was provided.
● Contact Joe Burchell at 573-4244 or jburchell@azstarnet.com. ● Contact C.J. Karamargin at 573-4243 or ckaramargin@azstarnet.com.
I guess they hate the internet pressure.
At least Ann may see a little justice now even if delayed.
Ann done good by getting her case reinstated.
Couldn't this be a hate crime?
Interesting how the article is putting Ann on trial for discrepencies between her story and the official's claims of notification. Bet the 'officials' would have dragged her into court if the young thugs had been shot by her bodyguards to protect her during their assault. BTW, that would be my prescription for these kind of attacks - who knows if it is a cream pie or battery acid and shaving cream?
Those two idiots look like they need a can of whoop ass opened on them.
Leni
I hope these two cowardly losers serve time. Then I hope they meet a bunch of Ann's male supporters when they walk out of the pen.
William Krystal was also pied. I'm going to be seeing him at DeSales University in PA on Thurs.
How come they're in strait jackets?
The Democratic party, `05: after having controlled the media for so many years all they know to do is violence.
Reactionary, juvenile, criminal thugs. Ugly as sin, too, and are those KKK sheets they're wearing?
It was a hate crime, but white women are not a "protected" class. What happened to America?
These are the little punks Ann says throw like girls. And of course lefty, icky liberal Tucson wants them to walk. Stick them on the yard in Florence for a couple of years!
Ann had to drag the prosecutor Kicking and Screaming to get this done!!I hope that they(the miscreants)are put in Sherrif Joe Arpaio's resort!!!!!
Get a rope
Take a close look at these liberal lilly white weenies - you will see only hate and despair in their eyes - very much like Nazi soldiers.
>How come they're in strait jackets?<
Looks more like drapes covering something up. Could be blood on their shirts or a message on the T-Shirt.
Maybe their drapes covering up their strait jackets. :-)
Let me guess. Professional students?
I lived in Phoenix for a total of 16 years, and I've always felt that Tucson was more of a liberal town than conservative, which is probably also the ideology of it's newspaper.
I realized(soon afterwards)that Sherrif Joe Arpaio's jurisdiction is Maricopa County!Darn!!!!!!!!!!!
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