Kathryn Knott’s defense attorney called four of her friends to the stand on his first day with the case.
Knott, 25, is charged with aggravated and simple assault, conspiracy and reckless endangerment in connection with the 2014 attack on gay couple Andrew Haught and Zachary Hesse.
Prosecutors say Knott was part of a group that physically and verbally attacked Haught and Hesse at 16th and Chancellor streets Sept. 11, 2014. The melee started, they say, when Kevin Harrigan, a friend of Knott’s, made a derogatory comment about the men being a couple. Harrigan and co-defendant Philip Williams accepted plea deals this fall and will receive no jail time; Knott rejected a similar plea deal.
Before the defense began presenting its case, defense attorney Louis Busico asked Judge Roxanne Covington to dismiss all charges regarding Haught and the aggravated assault and conspiracy charges regarding Hesse.
Covington denied that motion, saying the “evidence heard in this courtroom is sufficient for a jury to consider the charges.”
Defense witnesses
Busico called four “fact” witnesses, all of whom were present for the incident, to the stand Monday, beginning with Elizabeth Foley, who characterized Knott as a “friend of a friend.”
Foley, 26, captured key video of parts of the melee. She explained the video was broken into two pieces because she received a call in the middle.
Foley said she didn’t see Knott strike anyone or use derogatory language. She said Knott was “just standing around.”
Her boyfriend, John McCabe, was called next. McCabe said Knott was “standing off to the side” during most of the altercation; however, on cross-examination, Assistant District Attorney Mike Barry showed McCabe a copy of his statement in which he said he didn’t see Knott during the incident.
Barry also noted that about 90 percent of the people involved are friends from high school. McCabe described himself as a friend of Williams and Harrigan but said he didn’t keep in touch with Knott.
McCabe said he didn’t call 911 that might because he didn’t want Williams to get in trouble. He added that his group was “afraid” of Hesse and Haught, whom he characterized as “aggressive.”
“We were in the middle of the city, and we were attacked out of nowhere,” McCabe said.
Patrick Conly and Taylor Peltzer also contended the couple was to blame for the violence. Conly said Hesse threw him to the ground, and Peltzer alleged Haught punched her in the face.
On cross-examination, Barry and Assistant District Attorney Allison Ruth recounted that there were eight men and seven women in their group, suggesting it’s dubious that Hesse or Haught would attack with such disproportionate numbers.
Peltzer said the punch came after she offered to help Haught find his glasses, which were knocked off in the scuffle. Ruth emphasized that Peltzer did not call police to report she had been hit.
“I was in shock because I just got hit,” Peltzer testified.
Ruth and Barry prompted each witness to acknowledge that he or she did not call 911, but rather went to local bar Tir Na Nog.
“I was upset, in shock, crying and I did not call 911,” Peltzer said.
She did contend she saw a dentist after the incident, complaining of mouth pain. She said she underwent a four-hour procedure, but could not recall what type of procedure and said it could have been for a cavity. She did not tell detectives about the procedure.
The defense resumes with more fact witnesses Tuesday morning and is also expected to call several character witnesses.
Prosecution rests
Before turning the case over to the defense, Barry introduced four of Knott’s Twitter postings into evidence. Using a projection screen, he read four tweets, dating from 2012 and 2013, to the court which contained derogatory remarks about gay people.
Barry also finished questioning lead detective Ralph Domenick. On cross, Busico hammered the point that Domenick did not ask the eight members of Knott’s group he and his partner interviewed about Knott’s alleged actions.
“Did you ask [Foley] if she saw Kathryn Knott slap, punch or stroke anyone” or “use vulgar language, including the word ‘faggot’?” Busico asked the detective, repeating a similar question about each of the interviewees.
On re-direct, Domenick said he didn’t prompt any witnesses to single out aggressors so as to elicit a “true narrative of what happened, instead of focusing on specific people.”
Busico attempted to blast holes in the detectives’ investigation. Domenick acknowledged that they did not show eyewitness Michelle Moore surveillance video of the group to have her identity Knott or other suspects; instead, Moore picked Knott out from a computer-generated photo array. In statements, Moore said the woman she saw punch one of the victims was wearing a dress with both black and white on it; Knott was wearing a white dress during the incident.
During re-direct, Domenick noted that detectives used a photo array, as opposed to video, to “know if they could recognize them by their faces.” Domenick added a positive ID on a face could prompt an arrest warrant, while a clothing ID could not.
During the prosecution’s case, two eyewitnesses said they saw a woman in a white dress punch a man during the altercation at 16th and Chancellor streets, though there were some discrepancies between their testimony on the shade of the woman’s dress and hair color. At the time of the incident, Knott was blonde and wearing a white dress. Both identified Knott in a photo array shortly after the incident.
Another witness testified he saw a woman pointing in a man’s face.
The prosecution called nine witnesses in total, including both of the victims. Hesse, 29, testified that Knott hit him in the face during the melee. Haught, 28, concurred that Knott punched Hesse and was calling them both faggots during the incident. Haught spent five days in the hospital being treated for broken bones and had his jaw wired shut for eight weeks.
