Victims in Center City gay-bash case file suit
The two men who were insulted by anti-gay slurs and viciously attacked in Center City Philadelphia nearly two years ago filed a lawsuit earlier this week against the three Bucks County defendants who were criminally charged in the assault.
The two men who were insulted by anti-gay slurs and viciously attacked in Center City Philadelphia nearly two years ago filed a lawsuit earlier this week against the three Bucks County defendants who were criminally charged in the assault.
Andrew Haught, 28, and Zachary Hesse, 30, filed the suit in Philadelphia Common Pleas Court on Tuesday against Kathryn Knott, 25; Philip Williams, 25; and Kevin Harrigan, 27.
Andrew Youman, one of the plaintiffs' attorneys at the Center City firm Kline & Specter, said Thursday that the lawsuit is not just about getting compensation for medical expenses.
"The lawsuit is more about the pain and the suffering and the permanent injuries done to Andrew, including the scarring of his face," said Youman.
The lawsuit details much of what was already revealed about the attack during the criminal cases.
According to testimony from the lawsuit and Knott's December trial, the defendants were part of a group of 15 people who were out in Center City about 10:45 p.m. Sept. 11, 2014, when they encountered Hesse and Haught, a gay couple in Philadelphia, who were walking near 16th and Chancellor Streets.
Harrigan first called Hesse an antigay slur and punched him. Hesse was then surrounded and his arms restrained. During that time, Knott was one of the people who punched him and yelled an antigay slur.
Williams attacked Haught, punching him multiple times and knocking him to the ground.
As Haught lay motionless and bleeding on the ground, the defendants and their friends left without anyone trying to help.
The suit contends that all three defendants intentionally attempted or threatened to inflict injury on both victims. It also says the defendants caused the victims to fear for their safety.
Haught was hospitalized for five days and suffered fractures to his jaw bone and around his eye. He had to have his jaw wired shut for eight weeks to repair his jaw bone.
Hesse suffered cuts and bruises to his face and body. Both men suffer from pain and mental anguish, the lawsuit says.
A voicemail left on a home number listed for Harrigan, of Warrington, was not returned Thursday. Williams, of Warminster, could not be reached.
Knott, of Southampton, is currently serving a five-to-10-month jail sentence at the Riverside Correctional Facility in the city's Holmesburg section. She was convicted by a Philadelphia Common Pleas jury in December of simple assault and related charges.
The defendants have not yet been served with the lawsuit, and do not yet have attorneys representing them.
Only Knott took her criminal case to trial.
In October, Williams pleaded guilty to aggravated assault; Harrigan to simple assault. Both were sentenced to probation - Williams got five years and Harrigan, three - and community service, and banned from coming to Center City while on probation.
Knott is the daughter of Karl Knott, the former police chief in Chalfont Borough, Bucks County, and now a captain at the Central Bucks Regional Police Department.
The father, daughter, Bucks County District Attorney David Heckler and two detectives in the D.A.'s Office were separately sued in federal court in Philadelphia on April 29 by a Norristown woman, Kathleen O'Donnell, 61, who had created a blog called "Knotty is a Tramp."
That lawsuit claims O'Donnell was fired from her job at a parking-design-consulting company after the Knotts complained to the D.A.'s Office about the blog, prompting the two detectives to go to O'Donnell's Wayne office and speak to her boss.
O'Donnell had at times posted comments on her blog from a work computer. Heckler has said his detectives were concerned about the blog because it "was perceived as potentially threatening and potentially inciting others" to do something threatening.
Attorney John W. Morris, who is representing the Knotts in the federal lawsuit, said Thursday that he was not aware of the lawsuit filed by Hesse and Haught, and did not know if he would be representing Kathryn Knott in that suit. He declined comment on the federal suit.
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