‘I really regret it.’ Two plead guilty in altercation during protests last summer.
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Two men who were accused of getting in an altercation with people in a vehicle during an otherwise peaceful protest last summer pleaded guilty this week to multiple charges.
Kaulbert Wilson, 20, pleaded guilty Wednesday to second-degree riot, fourth-degree assault with no visible injury, second-degree disorderly conduct and two counts of third-degree criminal mischief.
Dylan Dempster pleaded guilty Tuesday to second-degree riot and two counts of third-degree criminal mischief.
On the night of June 1, 2020, a group protesting for police accountability encountered a car at the intersection of Midland Avenue and Main Street. Dempster said in his hearing Tuesday that he was blocking traffic from turning into oncoming protesters when a man and woman got out of the car and started yelling at him.
At that point people in the crowd ran up and a fight occurred, Dempster said. Dempster maintained that he did not hit anyone, but said he did smash the couple’s windshield with his skateboard.
“I really regret it,” Dempster said.
Dempster said that the people in the car were using racial slurs against the crowd and hitting his friends before he smashed their windshield.
Wilson’s attorney, Daniel Whitley, also noted during his client’s hearing that there were derogatory terms being used against Wilson before the assault occurred. Assistant commonwealth’s attorney Aubrey McGuire did not deny that derogatory terms were used, but said that it was the other adult in the car who used them, not the man who was hit by Wilson.
Wilson admitted to hitting the man, as well as jumping on a separate vehicle and fleeing from a police officer and causing damage to his uniform and equipment.
There were three children in the car of the couple on Midland Avenue at the time of the fight, police said at the time. Police also said at the time that the driver suffered a concussion and his wife suffered a swollen eye.
Wilson and Dempster both face a recommended year in jail. Whitley said during Wednesday’s hearing that he intends to file a motion to ask that Wilson be given probation in the case. Both are set to be sentenced on May 26.
Wilson still has some misdemeanor charges connected to last summer’s protests that are pending in Fayette County District Court.
There are also a number of other protesters facing non-violent misdemeanor charges related to protests last summer, and the local chapter of the NAACP and other activists have called for those charges to be dropped.
A third person was charged in connection with the Midland Avenue incident, but his name was not released because he is a juvenile.
