From: NewNowNext
Zachary Hesse and Andrew Haught, the victims who suffered a brutal gay-bashing that left one of them lying unconscious on a Philadelphia sidewalk in September 2014, have filed a civil suit against the three assailants charged in the horrific homophobic beating.
Two of the assailants, Kevin Harrigan and Philip Williams, escaped jail time by pleading guilty to conspiracy and simple assault. As part of the plea deal, they were sentenced to probation and banned from the gay-friendly neighborhood where the attack took place.
The third assailant, Kathryn Knott, the daughter of a rural Pennsylvania police chief, tried her luck at court and was found guilty. She’s currently serving a five-to-ten month prison sentence after being chastised by a judge for requesting a reduced sentence.
The suit, according to Philadelphia magazine, is seeking unspecified damages related to the victims’ psychological injuries, emotional distress, and physical injuries.
Though both men suffered injuries, Haught bore the brunt of it and was rushed into surgery after being knocked unconscious in the brawl. He stayed in the hospital for five days and suffered a fractured jaw bone and orbital bone, permanent facial scarring, and had his jaw wired shut for eight weeks.
The suit claims Haught was beaten by Williams, and that Harrigan called Hesse a “dirty fucking faggot” before punching him in the face.
The suit also claims that members of the group restrained Hesse while he was hit repeatedly, and that Knott called him a “faggot” before she punched him in the face.
As Towleroad notes, Knott is also currently being sued by a woman who was fired from her job after she created a blog to write about the attack under the pseudonym “Knotty is a Tramp.”
That woman, Kathleen O’Donnell of Norristown, Pennsylvania, is seeking more than $5 million from Knott, her father, Bucks County, the district attorney and two detectives in the case based on her free speech rights being violated.
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