Former Bier Garden manager Malcolm Knighten pleaded guilty on Sept. 22 to assault with a deadly weapon, selling an alcoholic beverage after hours and resisting a public officer — stemming from a fight with an ALE officer, according to his lawyer. He received a sentence of nonactive probation and will have to perform community service.
Keith Hansen, Knighten’s attorney, declined to comment further on the matter, as Michael Plemmons, a former Bier Garden employee also arrested in the incident, still faces similar charges.
Knighten was originally also charged with assault on a law-enforcement officer inflicting serious injury and interference with an inspection, but those charges were dropped in his final plea.
The incident in May began when ALE Officer David Miller, authorities claimed, was assaulted while trying to write tickets to Bier Garden employees for drinking after hours. In the 911 call for the incident, Knighten assertedthat Miller had begun threatening employees, had not identified himself and that Knighten didn’t believe he was a law-enforcement officer. Plemmons was fighting with Miller, while Knighten struck Miller with a bar stool.
— David Forbes, staff writer
Well, well. After all the caterwalling after this event took place, it seems the ABC enforcement officer and the APD were right after all. Eat your heart out Jason Bug. Knowing someone from high school does not make them innocent.
Typical plea. Smart that he accepted it.
Guilty.
Yes he is guilty. Just like the police said he is guilty.
OJ was guilty the first time and what happened? Our court system sucks and the ALE officer in question is a rotten human being.
The smugness of the previous pair of posters indicates a certain comfort with authoritarian doctrines that don’t serve any of us, period.
Not smug. But considering all the debate here right after the arrests, those of us who reasoned the ALE and APD were in the right have a right say we were right all along. The law is the law.
The smugness of the previous pair of posters indicates a certain comfort with authoritarian doctrines that don’t serve any of us, period.
Surely, this isn’t the first time you’ve noticed this!
“Yes he is guilty. Just like the police said he is guilty.”
Your complete lack of understanding of your own nations justice system is appalling. Do they not teach civics in this state?
shadmarsh,
Please tell all of us how “your” nation’s justice system works. I know how “ours” does.
Had he not plead and went the whole enchilada he’d be in the greybar hotel because he was guilty of other offenses as well.
Of course, you will not accept that. Whatever.
Piercing review, Ken! Two thumbs up.
Uh Don, if you know how our nations justice system works then surely you must know that the police do not decide who is and who is not guilty, which is what I was referring to in my above comment.
shadmarsh,
In that narrow beam of light you are certainly correct. Forgive me if I was remembering your previous posts on this and your feelings at that time.
BTW, I do like your avatar. Original?
I for one am not surprised Ken Hanke find this an “injustice”. Any reviewer who admires the work of the way weird film “Pink Flamingos” can’t come close to be a reasoning citizen when it comes to law and order. Hey Ken, I bet your criticism of the law would stop if you were in trouble and they came to your cry for help.
Al-
Since you seem to need to have it spelled out:
1) the police and the courts are two completely different animals. The police are the ones who *might* come to your aid if you are “in trouble”.
The court system decides who should be “punished” for *proved* wrong-doing and breaking laws.
2) Plea-bargains, which is certainly what would seem to have gone down here, are a completely different animal altogether. The police have little to no control there – it’s entirely up to the courts/judges.
Personally, I find it very interesting that while the restaurant manager in question has pleaded “guilty” to what *sound like* rather serious charges….his sentence is rather, ehm, lenient.
Of course, if one believes that the whole case was pretty much absurdity from the get-go…the light sentence makes pretty good sense.
And lastly, whether you share Mr. Hanke’s opinion on various films “worthiness” of your admiration or disdain really has nothing to do with whether or not Mr. Hanke is a “reasoning citizen”.
In fact, your comment seems rather inappropriate and somewhat “baiting”. Just my $.02.
I for one am not surprised Ken Hanke find this an “injustice”.
Actually, I never said anything like that, nor do I have much of an opinion on this whole thing. I merely agreed with Mr. Yuck about a couple of people’s smugness and complacency.
Any reviewer who admires the work of the way weird film “Pink Flamingos”
Gee, Al — or should I say William or Nam? — that sounds most intriguingly familiar, as does your four-square support for never questioning authority or the rightness of everything the police do, especially as regards this case. Makes one wonder…
The problem I have with this whole narrative is the part where two bar employees suddenly attack an ALE officer who properly identified himself after barging in at closing time. Way weird indeed.
“I for one am not surprised Ken Hanke find this an “injustice”. Any reviewer who admires the work of the way weird film “Pink Flamingos” can’t come close to be a reasoning citizen when it comes to law and order. Hey Ken, I bet your criticism of the law would stop if you were in trouble and they came to your cry for help.”
Welcome back Nam Vet!
Num Vet
a rose by any other name will still smell as ignorant.
For someone who claims to dislike Pink Flamingos, he sure does like to talk about it a lot.
Mr. Yuck, that was part of the problem. Apparently, the ALE officer didn’t properly identify himself. That’s the claim, and since the “on an officer” part of the assault charge was dropped, I’m inclined to think he didn’t ID himself after all.
Ken, Ken, Ken. I am Albert, but you can call me Al. If any previous posters took the same point of view as myself, it just goes to show Asheville still has citizens of reason and conservative values. Afterall, we do still have to have a certain percentage of the population think and act like adults. That way the transplant “artist” types and dreamers can have their say, but have the adults still run things so society doesn’t fall apart.
I do not support law enforcement blindly. But as a person with previous law enforcement experience, I do know that officers have certain standards they have to abide by before going to the extent of an actual arrest. Prosecutors are not keen on bad arrests. Therefore, professional police forces, like APD, make good arrests the great majority of the time. I take that into consideration to give my opinion that this is a good arrest. The fact the perp “copped” a plea is evidence that my reasoning is correct, in this instance.
Ken, Ken, Ken. I am Albert, but you can call me Al. If any previous posters took the same point of view as myself, it just goes to show Asheville still has citizens of reason and conservative values.
Let’s say I remain skeptical — as, quite obviously, do a few others. Granted, William P. Miller and Nam Vet were bogus names. (I do know Mr. Miller’s real name.) It’s not so much that you take the “same point of view,” it’s that you take ALL the same points of view — and like your banned predecessor default to the same argument.
In two completely unrelated stories just on the news last night:
1) An off-duty officer got into a scuffle at Fun Depot and a witness swears she witnesses gun shots but the police report does not mention any and the owner denies that account.
2) A police officer in Swain County says the man he is accused of beating last month tried to hit him in the head with his elbows while he was attempting to detain him on a mental commitment order, even though witnesses, who later filed written complaints, said the officer pepper-sprayed and then beat Grant 25-30 times with a police baton after he refused to get into a patrol car car.
ALE is an obsolete agency, a shining example of the state overreaching into local affairs. Not surprising for the backwards state government we have in NC.
You’re all obviously missing the point by arguing whether or not Knighten was “guilty.” Plea deals are a total wash because the defendat has to plead guilty to something of which they may know they are completely innocent. The reason one might take a plea deal is because it’s better than the alternative.
Overnight, at the whim of the D.A., Knighten was given the opportunity to escape a scenario in which he could have faced six years in prison if convicted of the two felonies and four misdmeanors for which he had been charged. He took it. As a result he was convicted of three misdemeanors and spent two days working at Goodwill on Tunnel Road. Now he has to pay $30 a month for the next year. That’s it!
Now you’re seriously going to tell me that a 24-year-old kid who’s never been in any trouble in his entire life is so obviously guilty when the D.A. let him off the hook entirely before the thing ever had a chance to go to trial? I doubt it. What that means is that the prosecution knew they’d lose that trial if it happened.
Plemmons hasn’t accepted his plea deal. Let’s keep that in mind. This thing could still go to trial. It probably will. And the real story will be publicized.
But it will take forever. Up to a year or maybe even longer for an outcome. And some people have lives to live and jobs to attend and rent to pay and they don’t have the time or money to spend on a long, drawn out jury trial. So they take the plea deal. And they move on with their lives. Self preservation is paramount to so-called justice. Sorry but that’s reality. The completely lenient plea offer made by the D.A., Ron Moore, which leaves Knighten completely free to enjoy his twenties and not be a convicted felon, is it’s own brand of victory for the defendant. He pretty much won.
If the prosecution thought it could convict of all the original charges, the offer never would have been made. Now they’re all sweating because Plemmons hasn’t accepted his plea deal. This could be a very interesting trial.
Whatever happened to the “security tape”?
And p.s. What ever happened with deputy Scarborough?
hey everyone, what is it you don’t understand about “guilty”?
Just so everyone knows, “Dave marks” is nam vet, and not “Dave”
thats me.
I probably have a more intimate undestanding of the aforementioned guilty plea than you could possibly comprehend.
What is it you don’t understand about my above comment?
To answer my own qustion, what you don’t understand is the distinction between the original charges and the one agreed upon in the plea deal that was eventally reached.
The defense and the prsecution both agreed that Knighten was not guilty of “felonious assault with a deadly weapon on a government officer,” as Officer David Miller did not act as a officer or present himself as one. So what Knighten was ultimately guilty of was hitting a stranger with a barstool. Misdemeanor assault with a deadly weapon. Get it?
The charge of “felnious assault on a government officer infliting serious injury” was also dropped, as Miller’s claims of serious injury were quickly found to be compltely fictitious upon a cursory glance of his post-bar brawl medical exam.
See, no one was ever arguing or even attempting to argue that Knighten never struck Miller. He did. The source of all the controversy was that the circumstances surrounding the incident, including who incited and escelated that incident, were completely embellished by officer Miller. And this will, in all likelihood, be revealed in Plemmons’ trial, which is still pending. He didn’t accept his plea deal, because all he tried to do was ask the guy to leave and then he got subsequently beaten up.
Guilty of a misdemeanor? Much ado about nothing. And a waste of taxpayer money.
I’m not sure, “Dave”. Can you explain it to us?
Whatever happened to the “security tape”?
There seems to be several “daves” here. dave, Dave, then dave marks. I put forth the idea I am the only dave with a reasoned point of view. -:)
It is obvious that the Ale officer Mr Miller was right all along. Even though many posters whined that the manager and his bouncer were right. If you read above, one person even said the manager was not guilty because he know him in high school. LOL, geez, must I point out how ignorant that is?
I still want to see the security tapes. I’m sure it will be a hoot.
Dave Marks-
My real name is Dave. Sometimes I post “David”. Your name, though, is very likely to be C. Anderson. Why not just post under that? You have posted under more then 10 names in the last year, none of them your “real” one. Perhaps you feel you cant put your real name next to what you write?
Your name, though, is very likely to be C. Anderson. Why not just post under that? You have posted under more then 10 names in the last year, none of them your “real” one. Perhaps you feel you cant put your real name next to what you write?
Trust me, he will be completely unaware of what you’re talking about (see thread on Eraserhead).
“Your name, though, is very likely to be C. Anderson. Why not just post under that?”
or better yet don’t post at all, you have not offered any new information with any of your various of your identities. I find it strange that one fake identity is so ashamed of the other fake identity, and in some cases the two fake identities agree with each other. Maybe Num Vet has multiple personality disorder.