In a message dated 9/24/02 9:44:41 PM Pacific Daylight Time,
lancejacob@attbi.com writes:
I'm sure Pierce will be able to identify at least one of the guys,
and that
will tie
in the others even from vague testimony given this week. Kind of
hard to
contradict Pierce when you're 3 feet away.
Apparently, Paul couldn't positively ID anybody in his testimony on
Tuesday.
From the Globe
http://www.boston.com/sports/celtics/news/092402_pierce.htm:
Pierce describes stabbing in vivid detail, but he can't positively
identify
attackers
By Denise Lavoie, Associated Press, 09/24/02
Celtics star Paul Pierce described the attack in vivid detail. The
"stinging
blows," the bottle that felt "like a rock coming down" on his head,
his pleas
to friends who drove him to the hospital: "I hope I live through this."
Paul Pierce arrives at Suffolk County Superior Court today to continue
his
testimony. (AP Photo) NECN REALVIDEO
NECN: <A
HREF="http://www.necn.com/emailjump.asp?contentid={145E2774-63BF-4509-
A670-12B9782B0171}&catid={9F0BBE17-659F-11D5-B645-
00508BA37909}">Pierce testifies</A>
But Pierce was unable to positively identify his attackers while
testifying
Tuesday at the trial of three men accused in his stabbing in a Boston
nightclub two years ago.
In the weeks after the attack at the Buzz Club on Sept. 25, 2000,
Pierce
picked out photographs of two men he said were among those who
attacked him:
William Ragland, 30, and Anthony Hurston, 33. The third man charged is
Trevor
Watson, 35.
But on the witness stand, Pierce said he could not positively identify
Hurston.Under questioning from Hurston's attorney, John Swomley, Pierce
acknowledged the man he described to police as the person who
initiated the
attack was much smaller than Hurston appeared to him in court
Tuesday.Pierce
originally described the man as approximately 5-foot, 9-inches tall,
weighing
about 205 pounds. Hurston is about 5-foot, 11-inches, and weighs
between 300
and 350 pounds.
Swomley, standing behind Hurston, asked Pierce if he was sure Hurston
was the
man who first attacked him that night.
"I'm not 100 percent sure," Pierce said.
"You can't identify him as being a perpetrator on the 25th, right?"
Swomley
asked.
"Right," Pierce replied.
Several other prosecution witnesses testified earlier in the trial
that it
was Ragland -- a much smaller man -- who initiated the fight and threw
the
first punch at Pierce, not Hurston.Two witnesses have identified
Hurston as
the man they saw hit Pierce over the head with a bottle during the
fight. But
one of those witnesses recanted her testimony.
Pierce also identified Ragland from a police photo array as one of the
men
who participated in his attack.But prosecutor John Pappas -- who
watched
Monday as two of his key witnesses recanted significant portions of
their
earlier grand jury testimony -- did not ask Pierce to identify any of
the
three accused men in court.
Pierce described the attack for a rapt jury. He said he went to the
Buzz Club
for a night out with Celtics' teammate Tony Battie and his brother,
Derrick
Battie.Pierce said he danced by himself on the dance floor for a few
minutes,
then headed into the club's pool room. Pierce said he said hello to
two women
who were standing near one of the pool tables, then leaned down and
asked
them what they were whispering about. A man standing nearby told
Pierce one
of the women was his sister.
"I looked him in the face and I told him, you know, no disrespect,"
Pierce
said.
But the man, whom he did not identify, "looked at me like he had a
problem
with me. I sensed a little animosity."
Pierce said the next thing he knew, he was attacked by people from all
sides.
He stumbled backward, felt "stinging blows" and was hit in the head
with a
bottle that felt "like a rock coming down on my head."
"So many people were on me that I was just trying to get them off of
me,"
Pierce said.
Security guards dragged Pierce into a stairwell, where he lifted his
blood-soaked T-shirt and realized he had been stabbed. The Battie
brothers
took him to the hospital.
"I started grabbing my wound and trying to hold the blood," Pierce
said. "I
just said, 'I hope I live through this.' "
Pierce, 24, recovered from his injuries and returned in time to start
the
2000-2001 basketball season.Hurston, Ragland and Watson are charged
with
armed assault with intent to murder and related charges.Testimony was
scheduled to resume Wednesday.