ELIZABETH HATCH: "DON'T I HAVE ANY RIGHTS?" CHICAGO POLICE: "NOT NOW BITCH"
'It was a good kick,' Anne Hatch says of jolt she gave cop car's window
CHICAGO -- The defense in the trial of Anne and Elizabeth Hatch rested just before noon today after an hour of testimony from Anne Hatch.
During that time, the 22-year-old described how she argued with a Chicago police officer who was trying to get her to leave the area outside a Chicago night spot and kicked out the window of a squad car.
Her sister, Elizabeth, 23, testified Thursday. Their father, Minnesota Attorney General Mike Hatch, had been a potential witness in the case, but did not testify.
The women are charged with misdemeanors after a wee-hours fracas outside the nightclub.
Prosecutors indicated they may call one rebuttal witness, and closing arguments could be heard this afternoon.
The women remained composed today, unlike on Thursday, when when both briefly broke down. Like her sister, Anne Hatch offered an account of what happened in the early morning hours of March 27, 2004, that differed from the one offered by six prosecution witnesses earlier this week.
She said she was the first sister arrested, which contradicts the account by the arresting officers. She said she confronted officer Jeffrey Phillips after he said over his police car's public address system ''Go home, little girls. Good night. You're done.''
She said she walked across the street, saying to Phillips, ''If you have something to say to me, speak to me like an adult.'' She said she was handcuffed within seconds and placed in the back seat of the squad car.
While she was in the squad car, she said, she noticed that officers outside appeared to be hurting her sister, and she said she kicked the passenger side window to divert their attention.
Asked by a prosecutor how hard she'd kicked the window, she said, ''I'm a soccer player. It was a good kick.''
The Hatch sisters opened their defense on Thursday, after almost two days of listening as their actions and reputations were shredded by prosecutors.
Most pointedly, Elizabeth Hatch said she never slapped Phillips, the alleged action that led to the arrests.
Elizabeth Hatch admitted to being "buzzed" after drinking at least five alcoholic drinks that night and said she engaged in what her attorney called "really foul language," but she vehemently disagreed with the prosecution's portrayal of two obnoxious, drunk women who arrogantly challenged everyone from bar bouncers to police officers.
The Hatches each face misdemeanor charges of resisting a peace officer, simple battery and criminal damage to property.
Such a case would hardly merit more than a line in a Chicago newspaper's police blotter were it not for the high profile of their father.
Chicago's news media seized on that from the first days of the case and prosecutors have repeatedly introduced testimony from witnesses who said the women invoked their father's name and title, saying "Don't you know who I am?"
No such thing occurred outside the trendy Crobar club on Chicago's Near North Side, Elizabeth Hatch said Thursday. Neither sister brought up her father's name and both later refused to give their real identities to arresting officers because "I knew this would happen and that the media would leap on it," Elizabeth Hatch said. "I've been raised in a political family and I know how politics and the media work."
For his part, Mike Hatch spent Thursday pacing the halls of the fifth floor of the Cook County Misdemeanor Court building.
Before Thursday morning's court session began, Hatch briefly broke his silence about the case, saying, "I believe in the system. I believe they'll be acquitted." Later, he added, "it's been a year from hell."
The centerpiece of Thursday's testimony focused on Elizabeth Hatch's forcible removal from the nightclub and her encounter with Phillips.
Phillips testified that he and a partner were returning to their patrol district after refueling their squad when they were hailed by a man who said he was the Crobar nightclub's security manager.
The manager told Phillips that two women were causing a disturbance "by pacing back and forth and screaming." When he used his loudspeaker to tell them to head home he said the woman he identified as Elizabeth Hatch replied "who the [expletive] are you talking to?" and bolted across the street toward his cruiser.
He said she reached back with her right hand as if to hit him and he tried to restrain her on the hood of the car. As he tried to handcuff her, "she spun around and slapped me in the face ... knocking my glasses off."
Crobar security officer Don Farrell, a retired Chicago cop, recalled the slap as the "way a wife would slap her husband if she found out he was cheating on her."
Elizabeth Hatch denied that that happened, saying a bouncer had carried her across the street and that she was knocked to the ground by an unknown assailant who tried to handcuff her.
She said she never touched Phillips and that "my knees were knocked out from under me and I fell to the ground. I didn't know who this person was. He grabbed my arms behind my back when my face was still smashed into the ground."
A cell phone call recorded on one of Hatch's friends' answering machines captured part of the encounter.
"Don't I have any rights?" she asked.
"Not now, bitch," Phillips replied.
"You can't call me bitch -- I didn't do anything," she said.
Asked why he had referred to Hatch that way, Phillips said, "I'm human -- I may be a police officer, but I'd just been struck in the face and I was insulted."
Later during his testimony, he said when he and his fellow officer "found out who they were, we knew this was going to be a headline issue."
It remains so to this day. Source: Assocaited Press, June 10, 2005
CHICAGO -- The defense in the trial of Anne and Elizabeth Hatch rested just before noon today after an hour of testimony from Anne Hatch.
During that time, the 22-year-old described how she argued with a Chicago police officer who was trying to get her to leave the area outside a Chicago night spot and kicked out the window of a squad car.
Her sister, Elizabeth, 23, testified Thursday. Their father, Minnesota Attorney General Mike Hatch, had been a potential witness in the case, but did not testify.
The women are charged with misdemeanors after a wee-hours fracas outside the nightclub.
Prosecutors indicated they may call one rebuttal witness, and closing arguments could be heard this afternoon.
The women remained composed today, unlike on Thursday, when when both briefly broke down. Like her sister, Anne Hatch offered an account of what happened in the early morning hours of March 27, 2004, that differed from the one offered by six prosecution witnesses earlier this week.
She said she was the first sister arrested, which contradicts the account by the arresting officers. She said she confronted officer Jeffrey Phillips after he said over his police car's public address system ''Go home, little girls. Good night. You're done.''
She said she walked across the street, saying to Phillips, ''If you have something to say to me, speak to me like an adult.'' She said she was handcuffed within seconds and placed in the back seat of the squad car.
While she was in the squad car, she said, she noticed that officers outside appeared to be hurting her sister, and she said she kicked the passenger side window to divert their attention.
Asked by a prosecutor how hard she'd kicked the window, she said, ''I'm a soccer player. It was a good kick.''
The Hatch sisters opened their defense on Thursday, after almost two days of listening as their actions and reputations were shredded by prosecutors.
Most pointedly, Elizabeth Hatch said she never slapped Phillips, the alleged action that led to the arrests.
Elizabeth Hatch admitted to being "buzzed" after drinking at least five alcoholic drinks that night and said she engaged in what her attorney called "really foul language," but she vehemently disagreed with the prosecution's portrayal of two obnoxious, drunk women who arrogantly challenged everyone from bar bouncers to police officers.
The Hatches each face misdemeanor charges of resisting a peace officer, simple battery and criminal damage to property.
Such a case would hardly merit more than a line in a Chicago newspaper's police blotter were it not for the high profile of their father.
Chicago's news media seized on that from the first days of the case and prosecutors have repeatedly introduced testimony from witnesses who said the women invoked their father's name and title, saying "Don't you know who I am?"
No such thing occurred outside the trendy Crobar club on Chicago's Near North Side, Elizabeth Hatch said Thursday. Neither sister brought up her father's name and both later refused to give their real identities to arresting officers because "I knew this would happen and that the media would leap on it," Elizabeth Hatch said. "I've been raised in a political family and I know how politics and the media work."
For his part, Mike Hatch spent Thursday pacing the halls of the fifth floor of the Cook County Misdemeanor Court building.
Before Thursday morning's court session began, Hatch briefly broke his silence about the case, saying, "I believe in the system. I believe they'll be acquitted." Later, he added, "it's been a year from hell."
The centerpiece of Thursday's testimony focused on Elizabeth Hatch's forcible removal from the nightclub and her encounter with Phillips.
Phillips testified that he and a partner were returning to their patrol district after refueling their squad when they were hailed by a man who said he was the Crobar nightclub's security manager.
The manager told Phillips that two women were causing a disturbance "by pacing back and forth and screaming." When he used his loudspeaker to tell them to head home he said the woman he identified as Elizabeth Hatch replied "who the [expletive] are you talking to?" and bolted across the street toward his cruiser.
He said she reached back with her right hand as if to hit him and he tried to restrain her on the hood of the car. As he tried to handcuff her, "she spun around and slapped me in the face ... knocking my glasses off."
Crobar security officer Don Farrell, a retired Chicago cop, recalled the slap as the "way a wife would slap her husband if she found out he was cheating on her."
Elizabeth Hatch denied that that happened, saying a bouncer had carried her across the street and that she was knocked to the ground by an unknown assailant who tried to handcuff her.
She said she never touched Phillips and that "my knees were knocked out from under me and I fell to the ground. I didn't know who this person was. He grabbed my arms behind my back when my face was still smashed into the ground."
A cell phone call recorded on one of Hatch's friends' answering machines captured part of the encounter.
"Don't I have any rights?" she asked.
"Not now, bitch," Phillips replied.
"You can't call me bitch -- I didn't do anything," she said.
Asked why he had referred to Hatch that way, Phillips said, "I'm human -- I may be a police officer, but I'd just been struck in the face and I was insulted."
Later during his testimony, he said when he and his fellow officer "found out who they were, we knew this was going to be a headline issue."
It remains so to this day. Source: Assocaited Press, June 10, 2005
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