Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, October 14, 1993 TAG: 9310140261
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By LAURENCE HAMMACK STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Paul Holt had claimed the three officers assaulted him, but those charges were dismissed by General District Judge George B. Cooley.
The hearing was full of conflicting testimony, which is usually the case when Holt - a former prostitute who appears in court as often as he does on Salem Avenue - faces police.
But both sides agreed on one thing: Their encounter outside a nightspot in the early hours of May 29 resembled a dogfight.
Sheriff's Deputy Kevin Bradshaw said that a combative Holt was shouting obscenities, threatening lawsuits and foaming at the mouth "like a rabid dog."
But to hear Holt testify, police descended on him "like a pack of wild dogs," throwing him to the ground, hitting him with a flashlight, choking and kicking him.
Holt admitted, however, that he initiated the encounter by intentionally stepping in front of a patrol car as police were leaving. Police said Holt put up a fight when they tried to charge him with public intoxication, forcing them to wrestle him to the ground to make the arrest.
By the time Commonwealth's Attorney Donald Caldwell had finished questioning Holt's only independent witness - Bradshaw, who actually backed the officers' account - it was clear Holt was not pleased.
"Is there anyone else you would like to call as a witness, Mr. Holt?" Caldwell asked.
Holt: "Yeah. Call Jesus, so we can get somebody to tell the truth in here."
Caldwell: "I don't believe we subpoenaed him."
Holt: "Well, you should have."
Never at a loss for words, Holt launched into an impassioned argument about the injustice of it all. Cooley cut him off in mid-tirade.
"This was a confrontation that was brought about, in my opinion, by Mr. Holt," Cooley said. The judge dismissed assault charges against police Sgt. R.L. Hague, Sheriff's Deputy D.K. Bell, and patrol officers G.L. Brown and J.M. Donaldson.
Holt had claimed that after the three police officers beat him, Bell continued the attack at the city jail. He said police also made slurs about his homosexuality.
After convicting Holt of impeding police, Cooley fined him $150. Holt was fined another $15 for being drunk in public.
Holt, 24, has been arrested dozens of times, usually on misdemeanor charges. He fights every case in court, and appeals the ones he doesn't win.
Many of the arrests are made on a stretch of Salem Avenue known for prostitution, where Holt often dresses as a woman and mingles with streetwalkers. Although he has been convicted of prostitution in the past, Holt says he is no longer in the business.
Earlier this year, he successfully challenged the legality of the city's anti-solicitation law.
Since then, Holt has said, police have been out to get him.
Yet he admitted that on the night of the incident he followed police out of the Back Street Cafe and stepped in front of a patrol car. Holt said he assumed police wanted to arrest him for being drunk in public, but believed he was not intoxicated enough to support the charge.
"I was just messing around with them," he said. "I was trying to get their goat . . . but I didn't expect it to go as far as it did."
by CNB