A
US jury has freed Kathryn Knott, daughter of a suburban police chief, of four serious
counts, including aggravated assault of the victims. The jury, however, found
her guilty of simple assault, reckless endangerment and conspiracy to commit
simple assault on the four victims after its members had three days of
deliberations.
Her
conviction is in respect of the violent attack on a gay couple last year; she
was in court with her parents for the verdict and is now on bail, pending her
sentencing coming up on February 8, 2016.
Knott,
25, in her defense alleges that she never shouted abuses at the men or physically
punched any of the men in their assault in September 2014 which resulted in one
of the men getting a broken jaw. This is contrary to witnesses who state that
she threw a punch rather than intervene; two other co defendants in the case
pleaded guilty in October and were sentenced to probation.
She
too may be sentenced to probation but she could also get a two year jail term
on account of the three misdemeanors.
However,
the verdict of the jury, not being satisfactory to the authorities of Philadelphia,
has caused the city officials to review its hate law to include acts of sexual
orientation, to provide for the offence in any future case of the same nature.
The
case details are that Knott and some 14 other friends, all from the same
Catholic high school in Southampton, Bucks County went out to celebrate a birthday in the town and came across the victims
who were on their way to the Gayborhood area of the city to buy pizza. The
other defendants, Philip Williams and Kevin Harrigan pleaded guilty to their
charges and got five and 3 years of probation respectively, in addition to
being banned from downtown while on probation.
The
defendants all claim that the incident did not arise from any bias on their
part, in regards to claims that the assault came after the men were asked if
they were gay. However, the court was informed that Knott was known to show her
dislike for gays in tweets of hers, it was also reported that she had lost her
job at a hospital when she was arrested after being thrown out of a bar.
The
victims in the case, however, would not be speaking on it to the media.
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