Wauwatosa brawl suspect pleads guilty

When I last updated this story, it was thought that Graham would plead guilty, and Wauwatosa police had declined the DA office's recommendation to fine one of the gay/transgendered brawl participants.

A man accused of being involved in a fight with two gay women and a man at a George Webb restaurant in Wauwatosa appeared in court Tuesday.

Jason Graham, 26, pleaded guilty to battery and felony bail jumping charges.
(WISN)

The story ends with reference to the the fact that Graham faces 10 years in prison. When I first read the story that seemed excessive to me--I hadn't noticed the second paragraph above. Jumping bail is just the sort of thing that will extend prison time.

Thus in addition to the first lesson of this incident (if you get into a disagreement with homosexuals or transgendered folk, do not strike or throw glass containers at them), we get another lesson: don't jump bail.

I probably won't update this story again. I'll just sum up the interesting aspects of the story.

The press did a terrible job reporting. Television news aired portions of interviews with the three "victims" (they were victims, but as the DA recommendations show, they weren't perfectly innocent) but not with other witnesses. The news services were given the surveillance tape, and oddly edited portions were shown to the public.

I can't fault the DAs for pressing the case against Graham, however. It appears he acted criminally when he re-entered the restaurant and threw dangerous objects at others.
I will fault, at least tentatively, the Wauwatosa police for not ticketing the transgendered person who threw a chair at Graham, and I fault the press for turning an almost absolutely blind eye to that aspect of the occurrence.

I'll also fault the members of the Wisconsin press who gave me the runaround and no answers when I tried to obtain an explanation for the editing of the surveillance video.

Note: I had misidentified Graham as "Randolph" in the next-to-last paragraph. That error, as well as a typographical error in the same paragraph, have now been corrected.