Woman gets jail for group attack on gay Philadelphia couple
Source: AP
By MARYCLAIRE DALE
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A suburban police chief's daughter began serving five to 10 months in jail on Monday for a group attack on a gay couple that prompted Philadelphia to add sexual orientation to its hate crime laws.
Common Pleas Judge Roxanne Covington questioned how then-hospital worker Kathryn Knott walked away from the victims as one lay badly injured in September 2014.
She also ordered the 25-year-old Knott, whose online posts have insulted gays, non-English speakers, Middle Easterners and hospital patients alike, to get anger management treatment and stay out of Philadelphia during two years of probation.
"While these were homophobic slurs that started this incident, it could have been any type of hate speech," said the judge, who said she herself might have been attacked walking with her girlfriend or sister. "It could have been anyone."
FULL story at link.
Read more: http://bigstory.ap.org/article/33531481b7e04c67a1c472afd04d9e01/woman-gets-jail-group-attack-gay-philadelphia-couple
= new reply since forum marked as read
Interesting that wasn't brought up in the article. I'm in Philly and that's quite a big deal here
*edited to add that apparently Heddi can't read the first sentence of an article 
Last edited Wed Feb 10, 2016, 12:00 PM - Edit history (7)
Knott insisted she moved toward the fight to intervene, but the judge found she threw a punch.
...(T)wo co-defendants agreed to plead guilty in exchange for probation...One, who caused the worst injuries, pleaded guilty to a felony...Knott's lawyer had hoped she would be given probation for her lesser role, even though she had rejected a similar plea offer...
What made her think she'd get acquitted when her "lesser role" consisted of leaving the injured victims and not getting them help? With a plea deal, she could have ended up with only a maximum of two years' probation and the assault-related charges dropped.
But now she'll be doing hard time for throwing one punch -- you'd think a police officer's daughter would have been savvier!
rocktivity
Isn't the minimum time normally one third of the maximum time -- three months and ten days, in this case? If she has to serve a minimum of five months, the judge must have run the sentences consecutively. If so, it serves her right for not joining her compatriots in taking a plea deal.
rocktivity
because there was no "proof" that she'd done anything "violent," plus her "pedigree" as the daughter of a police officer. But either somebody snitched (the one who got probation for the felony charge, perhaps?), or the jury just couldn't find a reason to believe her story.
rocktivity
Last edited Sat Jan 17, 2026, 01:56 PM - Edit history (12)
Ten days after (she was) ordered to prison...Bill Brennan, who has taken over Knott’s defense...filed a motion for reconsideration...
“In multi-defendant cases, courts historically have tried to show some commonality, some parity of sentences. The individuals in this matter who actually physically inflicted the harm, the striking blows, received sentences of non-incarceration,” Brennan said. “We understand that Ms. Knott exercised her right to trial but, in the final analysis, all three defendants have been adjudged guilty — two by pleas and one by a verdict — so we are going to ask the court to reconsider partially based on a disparity in the punishment imposed.”
According to Brennan, Knott “has learned a lot in the (past) 18 months,”...and her sentencing should be more rehabilitative... “In this case, the individual has a clean background, no prior contact with the justice system, and is serving prison time for a mid-level misdemeanor...”
Brennan doesn't seem to realize that he's employing the exact same strategy that got Knott convicted. She's just TOO gosh-darned respectable AND female to be treated like -- well, a common criminal? Neither the jury nor the judge agreed, and most likely because Mr. Brennan left a single pivotal word out of his argument.
Knott's co-defendants were adjudged guilty by plea DEALS (which, in case he also didn't know, were offered with the victims' blessings). The "disparity" in sentencing that Brennan (and DUer RobinA) noticed is that probation was the co-defendants' "reward" for sparing everyone the time and stresses of a trial. Knott turned down her plea deal -- now she deserves a lesser sentence on the grounds that she didn't get acquitted?
rocktivity