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Pair to stand trial in PNC Park fight
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The lawyer representing a Greensburg father and daughter accused of assault in a brawl that temporarily cost a Pirates security supervisor one of his fingers said he plans to argue in court that a third person was responsible for the fight.
Magisterial District Judge Kevin Cooper ordered at a preliminary hearing on Wednesday that Rachel George, 22, and Christopher George, 50, should stand trial on charges of assault, harassment, disorderly conduct, public drunkenness and conspiracy.
Pittsburgh police arrested the pair on May 12, during a Saturday night game in which the Pirates played the Houston Astros at PNC Park.
Partway through the game, someone took Ms. George to the security office after fellow guests complained that she had been smoking in her seat.
Security supervisor Joseph Risher was attempting to escort Ms. George out of the park when another man "assaulted Mr. Risher then ran out of the ball park and disappeared," police wrote in a criminal complaint.
Police said Ms. George then jumped on Mr. Risher's back and pulled him backward, at which point Mr. George pushed the two into a fence.
Mr. Risher's left middle finger got stuck in the fence and tore almost entirely off at the knuckle. Surgeons reattached it.
Pittsburgh police have also accused Ms. George of kicking Sgt. Sean Duffy, who then injured his shoulder while giving Ms. George a "palm slap."
Phillip DiLucente, the attorney representing the Georges, tried unsuccessfully to ask the judge to drop some of the charges, saying the two did not intend to hurt anyone and that they acted in the moment rather than conspiring.
He said after the hearing at the Pittsburgh Municipal Courts Building that much of his defense going forward will focus on the man who ran out of the ballpark at the beginning of the fracas.
A criminal complaint identifies the man only as "Rachel George's boyfriend [unknown]." Mr. DiLucente declined to say whether the Georges had given him the name of the man or to describe the man's relationship to the Georges, saying he wanted to see first whether prosecutors could find and then provide that information on their own.
First Published July 12, 2012 12:00 am
