Monday, December 7, 2009

Judge Pickering, for the love of all that is holy, have a talk with your son

First, we have the whole revelation about former Congressman Chip Pickering's (R-MS) extramarital affair.  Last night, WLBT reported that Chip's being "that guy" at his son's soccer game:


According to Madison Police, former Republican U.S. Representative Chip Pickering and Coach Chris Hester have signed affidavits against each other for simple assault.  Officers were called to Liberty Park's soccer fields around 4:30 this afternoon after reports of an altercation. Police say a disagreement between the teams two coaches led to Pickering approaching Hester about the treatment of his son who plays for the opposite team.
Oh how the mighty have fallen.... Court appearances today for the both of them before Madison City Court Judge Dale Danks.  Both have been charged with simple assault.

8 comments:

Kingfish said...

Knock it off. You don't know what happened. Do you know how easy it is to file simple assault charges? I pat you on the back and you can claim that is simple assault. I've seen it filed when someone said "I'll kick your ass" .

Right now, we dont' know much of anything until the court is held or someone gets a copy of the police reports.

grspore said...

Matt.. per your request, here's a quick blurb from the clarion ledger's blog on the Pickering story...

"Hopefully Chip Hester whipped his butt! I bet they were pulling each other's hair and biting each other!"

Unknown said...

Have to agree with Jimmy here. It's an interesting story, for sure, and one to follow... but let's not just jump to conclusions.

Matt Eichelberger said...

Jimmy, you're being too testy here. Where am I out of line?

wmsii said...

http://www.wapt.com/news/21886106/detail.html

Pickering's side of the story.

Justin said...

Matt,

How dare you report a story and link it to a credible news source. Don't you know that every day people are having simple assault charges filed against them and children's sporting events? I expected much better and professional coverage from you. Please don't report on this story until the judicial process has been complete. Then and only then does something become a news story.

Kingfish said...

I was referring to the headline Justin, not the news story itself, which was legitimate.

Simple assaults are filed all the time in Ms as there is a VERY low threshold for filing charges.

We don't know the story. Maybe Chip was a bully, maybe the coach was a punk, you know, the kind who was a loser in sports so he takes it out on being a coach and takes it waaaayyy too seriously. It will all come out and I'm surprised no one got it on a cameraphone.

At this point no one knows but we will soon enough.

Matt Eichelberger said...

Jimmy,

I learned something long ago from a lawyer whom I hold in the highest regard for ethical conduct. He taught me to avoid situations where you could be accused of bad behavior. (For instance, if a female client is in your office, keep the door slightly ajar.)

Chip blew the doors off of that rule, on more than one occasion. Chip's father is a man I highly respect, and I'm pretty sure that Judge Pickering would agree with what my mentor taught me. Maybe Judge Pickering should have a conversation with his son about avoiding situations such as this.

I understand that I, too, would be at the height of rage if someone was "verbally abusing" and "physically intimidating" my child to the "point of uncontrollable crying." But we have systems in place to handle situations such as this. You don't approach someone whom you claim is acting in such a matter, because stuff like this happens. I know Judge Pickering knows that.