Many Charges Dropped Against Groom In Wedding Night Melee
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- They held hands walking into Municipal Court.
Most of the charges against the groom, 33-year-old Mark Williams, were withdrawn. Only two lesser offenses, disorderly conduct and criminal mischief, remained.
"I would say this was an alcohol-fueled event," said the groom's attorney, William Stockey.
For better or worse, Mr. and Mrs. Mark Williams of Crafton are still together.
KDKA's Mary Robb Jackson: "So is the honeymoon beginning now?"
Edyta Williams: "We've always had a honeymoon."
A gracious answer from a bride who was left, not at the altar, but watching her husband loaded into a police cruiser after a donnybrook at their reception onboard the Gateway Clipper.
"The officers are doing an arrest in a very confusing melee. They don't know who's doing what, who people are?" said defense attorney David J. Shraeger.
Also arrested that night was the groom's brother, 35-year-old David Williams of Plum. He is a state trooper. All charges were dismissed against him. He returns to work immediately.
"He was actually nominated as trooper of the year. He's never had any disciplinary action before and the charges were dropped," says Schraeger.
Wedding guest, 34-year-old Brian Taylor of McKees Rocks, who is a member of the Sto-Rox School Board, pled guilty to the disorderly conduct and criminal mischief charges.
Both he, and the groom, each owed $300 in fines and court costs. They have already split restitution to the owner of car damaged at the scene - about $900.
The whole mess began when a woman on the Gateway Clipper Fleet wait staff told her boyfriend that the groom had gotten "handsy" with her, touching her torso and upper hip, trying to pour alcohol down her throat. The groom denied that.
"There are two sides to every story… and this one here, we felt the facts as they were presented in the criminal complaint were wholly inaccurate," said Schraeger.
"This was a significant misunderstanding. I never doubted Mark once," Edyta Williams, the bride, said.
Music to the ears of her groom.
"Like she said, she never doubted me once," said Mark.
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