The U.S. Senate race between George Allen and Jim Webb may have come to its official conclusion, but some campaign incidents have yet to die—like the October 31 confrontation at the Omni Charlottesville Hotel between liberal blogger (and UVA law student) Mike Stark and George Allen supporters. Commonwealth’s Attorney Dave Chapman tried to put the issue to rest last week, releasing a statement that his office “does not recommend that charges be brought against any participant.”
 Liberal blogger Mike Stark is still considering legal action for the widely circulated Omni Hotel Charlottesville incident during which George Allen supporters tumbled him to the floor. Stark was asking Allen if he had spit on his first wife. |
Stark, however, has yet to decide whether Chapman’s will be the last word: He is scheduled to discuss this week with his attorney the options of asking a magistrate for criminal charges or bringing a civil suit. “I’m obviously disappointed, I feel I was wronged, and wish the prosecutor had seen things my way as well,” says Stark.
What was to have been another in a series of Michael Moore-style confrontations with Allen, during which Stark asked Allen loaded questions about his past, turned into a brief scuffle broadcast on national TV. Stark appeared the aggrieved party in the widely distributed video clip, yet Chapman says an earlier recorded sequence suggests that Stark might have assaulted a staffer.
“I think it’s really two people coming together and both have a conception of what they want to achieve and there is physical contact,” says Chapman. In his press release, he notes “it is apparent from the evidence that no participant sought to strike or injure another person.” While intent is not absolutely necessary for an assault charge, “far more often than not, that’s really what we’re looking for when we think about whether an assault is merited.”
Chapman admits it’s less common (though not rare) for an investigation to take place for this level of charge. “Where there is thought to be a complex and significant event, events involving prominent people, there is probably a greater likelihood for steps to be taken that an investigation takes place that proceeds charges.”
