Gay-assault suspect is suspended from hospital job

KATHRYN KNOTT thinks "jazz flute is for little fairy boys," #gay is #ew and whiskey is awesome.

Those Twitter musings are part of what may cost her a job at Lansdale Hospital, according to a statement from Abington Health System.

Knott, 24, of Southampton, Bucks County, was suspended yesterday from her position as an emergency-room technician at the hospital, where she has worked since May 2011.

Hours before she was suspended, Knott and two other suspects in an attack on two gay men near Rittenhouse Square allegedly fueled by homophobia turned themselves in to police to face charges of aggravated and simple assault, recklessly endangering another person and criminal conspiracy.

Knott; Philip Williams, 24, of Warminster; and Kevin Harrigan, 26, of Warrington, allegedly attacked the men on Sept. 11 while walking with a larger group on Chancellor Street near 16th.

The alleged victims, a gay couple who have been together for six years, told the Daily News that they were confronted by about 12 twentysomethings, who spat homophobic slurs at them during the attack.

In interviews with investigators, according to a police source with knowledge of the case, the gay men said that Harrigan had uttered the first slurs.

Williams allegedly punched one of the men, then attacked his partner when he confronted him, that source said.

The couple also told police that Knott joined in the name-calling and hit one of them, according to the source.

One of the victims suffered severe facial injuries that required his jaw to be wired shut.

In tweets on Knott's Twitter account posted in 2012 and 2013, she used homophobic hashtags such as #dyke, whined about hangovers ("Open bar? Whiskey gingerss alllll nighttt longg") and posted other questionable sentiments, such as one complaining about a cab driver "shouting some jihad s---."

Her tweets have also drawn the attention of her employer: Abington Health is investigating her account, on which she posted complaints about unnamed patients and photos of patient X-rays and unusual injuries, including a photo of a patient's two dismembered fingers in a plastic bag.

The tweets could violate the hospital's patient-privacy and social-media policies, according to the statement from Abington Health.

Knott is the daughter of Chalfont Police Chief Karl Knott. She's a 2013 nursing graduate of La Salle University, according to a university representative.

Yesterday, Knott's lawyer, Louis Busico denied that she was involved in the attack.

"She absolutely maintains her innocence," Busico said. "At no point in time did she punch, kick or in any way strike those two gentlemen. She was merely present when this event occurred.

"This young woman is not homophobic, and no matter how many times the media wants to place that label on her, it just doesn't apply to her. The sexual orientation of anybody on that street was of no matter to this woman."

The lawyers representing the three people charged in the alleged attack maintain that the incident was a mutual argument, and that one of the alleged victims escalated the situation.

Fortunato Perri Jr., who is representing Williams, said his client got involved after one of the gay men allegedly punched a female member of the group. Perri said that Knott was not the woman struck.

"Being involved in something like this is completely outside the nature of who he is," Perri said of Williams, adding that the encounter "was in no way related to anyone's sexual orientation, or had anything to do with gay-bashing."

Sources confirmed that some members of the group who encountered the gay men were graduates of Archbishop Wood High School in Warminster who had just dined at La Viola West, a nearby upscale eatery.

The three people charged yesterday are all graduates of Wood, according to former classmates.

Another member of the group at the restaurant, Fran McGlinn, resigned from his position as an assistant basketball coach at Wood in the wake of the incident, according to Archbishop Charles Chaput.

The attack "allegedly involved, in some way, a part-time coach at Archbishop Wood High School," the archbishop said in a statement.

McGlinn, 25, has not been charged by the District Attorney's Office, and the nature of his involvement remained unclear last night.

A source in the Wood athletic department said last night that McGlinn was forced out by the archdiocese, and that many of his colleagues at the school want him to return.

"I know a lot of former players and alumni that would like to see him back," said the source, who spoke with the Daily News on the condition of anonymity.

McGlinn declined to speak with the Daily News. His lawyer, Brian McVan, also denied requests by the newspaper for comment.

Meanwhile, the incident has sparked outrage nationally. Gays are not a protected class under Pennsylvania's hate-crimes law, an omission activists aim to change. A rally is planned at 2 p.m. today at LOVE Park to garner support for the couple and to highlight the crusade to add sexual orientation to the law.

- Staff Writer Morgan Zalot

contributed to this report