The three defendants accused in the violent 2014 anti-gay hate attack of a Philadelphia same-sex couple may plead guilty and take a plea deal.
Kathryn Knott, Philip Williams, and Kevin Harrigan are expected to plead guilty and accept a plea deal, Philadelphia District Attorney Michael Barry says.Â
The trio of accused hate attackers were arrested September 24, 2014 and charged with aggravated assault, simple assault, and recklessly endangering another person (REAP), for the attack. Williams and Harrigan were also charged with conspiracy. All three pleaded not guilty and remain free on bond.Â
“I do expect them to plead guilty,” Barry, chief of the district attorney’s central division bureau, said Thursday, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports. Details of the deal, including specific charges and any possible prison time, have not been made public.
The three defendants are expected back in court October 15, and are expected to take the deal then. If they do not, a trial date will be scheduled. The trial was scheduled to have begun yesterday, before the plea deal was in the works.
As NCRM reported one month ago, the three and their attorneys were involved in negotiations with the D.A.’s office that was initiated in July.
In a hearing last December, one of the victims, who was hospitalized with facial injuries that included a broken jaw from the attack, testified in court for an hour, accusing Harrigan of asking him the night of the attack, “Is that your fucking boyfriend?,” and, “So you’re a dirty, fucking faggot?” He also told the court Knott “hit me in the face and just kept calling me a ‘dirty, fucking faggot,’ ‘faggot, faggot.'”
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Image by Victor Fiorillo via Twitter