THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 10, 2013
NATIONAL
PAGE 3
Former San Diego mayor sentenced for assault
ASSOCIATED PRESS
SAN DIEGO — When he was mayor of San Diego, Bob Filner waited to be alone with women to kiss, grope and manhandle them without any witnesses, according to a probation officer's report released after he was sentenced Monday to home confinement.
Former San Diego Mayor Bob Filner, right, sits with Earl Pott, a member of his defense team, in Robert J. Trentacosta's Superior Courtroom on Monday, in San Diego. Filner was sentenced Monday to three months of home confinement of probation.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filner, 71, apologized and told the judge he would try to earn the trust of those he betrayed and recover his integrity — a sharp contrast to his defiant resignation speech nearly four months ago in which he said he was the victim of "a lynch mob."
His attorney Jerry Coughlan said Filner dropped mood-altering medications when he became mayor. That, combined with the stress of leading the nation's eighth-largest city, substantially contributed to Filner's behavior, Coughlin wrote to the judge.
Superior Court Judge Robert Trentacosta sentenced Filner to three months of home confinement and three years of probation
the same punishment that prosecutors had recommended in a plea agreement reached in October.
"I want to apologize to my family, who have stood by me through this ordeal, to my loyal staff and supporters, the citizens of San Diego and most sincerely to the women I have hurt and offended," Filner told the judge in a brief statement. "Certainly the behaviors before this court today
will never be repeated."
Filner had faced a maximum possible penalty of three years in prison for a felony count of false imprisonment and one year in jail for each of two misdemeanor counts of battery.
The three victims in the complaint, who were not named, declined to attend the sentencing and didn't seek restitution, according to the probation report. One said she wished Filner would be sentenced to three months in jail and would leave San Diego, while the others had no opinion on an appropriate punishment.
The former 10-term congressman cannot seek or hold elected office while on probation and will be monitored by GPS during home confinement, which begins Jan. 1.
Nearly 20 women have publicly identified themselves as targets of Filner's unwanted advances, including kissing, groping and requests for dates. His accusers include a retired Navy rear admiral, a San Diego State University dean and a great-grandmother who volunteers her time to answer the questions of senior citizens at City Hall.
Filner, who is twice divorced, pleaded guilty to the felony for what the probation report described as putting a woman in a headlock after a dinner party on March 6 and attempting to kiss her on the lips. The woman, identified as a longtime Filner
He pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor for kissing a woman on the lips without permission at a "Meet the Mayor" event on April 6, according to the probation
acquaintance, told authorities that he kissed her eye and she elbowed him to get free.
report. The woman, who came to report alleged financial improprieties, told authorities the mayor had asked an aide to leave the curtain-shielded cubicle where they met.
The other misdemeanor involved grabbing another woman's
buttocks at a May 25 rally to clean up Fiesta Island in Mission Bay. The probation report says the woman was posing with the mayor for a photograph taken by her mother.
POLICE REPORTS
Information based on the Douglas County Sheriff's Office booking recap.
- A 19-year-old female was arrested Sunday on the 4100 block of 24th Place on suspicion of battery. No bond was posted.
- A 45-year-old female was arrested Sunday on the 300 block of Maine Street on suspicion of criminal trespassing and harassment by phone. No bond was posted.
—Emily Donovan
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INTERNATIONAL US veteran says videotaped confession was not genuine
SAN FRANCISCO — The 85-year-old U.S. Korean War veteran who was detained for weeks by North Korea said Monday that the videotaped confession in which he apologized for killing North Koreans during the war was given involuntarily and under duress.
In a written statement issued Monday, Merrill Newman said he tried to show that the words he read on the recording were not his own by emphasizing the apology's awkward phrasing and poor English grammar.
"Anyone who has read the text of it or who has seen the video of me reading it knows that the words were not mine and were not delivered voluntarily." Newman said. "Anyone who knows me knows that I could not have done the things they had me 'confess' to."
The former Army lieutenant said that while the North Koreans treated him well during his detention at a Pyongyang hotel, an interrogator told him repeatedly that if he did not apologize for his alleged crimes during the Korean War and during his visit to the communist nation, he would be sentenced to 15 years in jail for espionage.
"Under these circumstances, I read the document with the language they insisted on because it seemed to be the only way I might get home," he said.
Newman, who was deported Friday and returned home to California on Saturday, was detained in late October at the end of a 10-day trip to North Korea. His visit came six decades after he oversaw a group of South Korean wartime guerrillas during the 1950-53 war while serving in one of the U.S. Army's 8240th unit, an early special forces unit also known as the White Tigers whose missions remained classified until the 1990s.
He was scheduled to visit South Korea following his North Korea trip to meet some of the former fighters he had helped train.
Before he arrived in North Korea, Newman said he requested and was given permission to visit the region where he spent his war years advising the clandestine Kuwoi fighters. Once he got to Pyongyang, "I innocently asked my North Korean guides whether some of those who fought in the war in the Mt. Kuwoi area might still be alive, and expressed an interest in possibly meeting them if they were.
Associated Press
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Merrill Newman, center, walks beside his wife Lee, left, and his son Jeffrey after arriving at San Francisco International Airport on Saturday.