Altercation outside David Williams’ office leads to arrest, accusations

By Jack Brammer
jbrammer@herald-leader.com

FRANKFORT — Kentucky State Police arrested a Lexington composer Tuesday and charged him with menacing after an altercation outside the state Senate involving supporters of Democratic Sen. Kathy Stein, who recently lost her Lexington district in a Senate redistricting plan.

State police spokesman Lt. David Jude confirmed the arrest and charge that occurred after the Senate had adjourned for the day, but he had no other immediate information.

The Franklin County Regional Jail’s Web site identified the man who was arrested as Stephen Rhodes Schwartz, who also is known as Stephen Trask. He scored and wrote lyrics for the film Hedwig and the Angry Inch.

According to the Internet Movie Database, Trask, 45, also has worked on such movies as Dreamgirls, The Savages and Little Fockers.

The arrest involved a chaotic scene outside the Capitol office of Senate President David Williams and near the Senate chamber after Stein and Senate Majority Leader Robert Stivers argued on the Senate floor a redistricting bill that moved Stein out of her Lexington district and sent it to northeastern Kentucky.

Stivers, R-Manchester, blamed Stein “for inciting an incident and putting in place the people to create an incident that people could have gotten hurt.”

He noted that at least one person, John Barton, a former state police officer and now a Senate doorman, sustained some “bumps and bruises” during the altercation.

Stivers added that Senate leaders have requested extra state police security during the remainder of this year’s legislative session.

Stein denied that she had anything to do with what happened outside of the Senate chambers and was aghast that Senate Republicans were trying to blame her.

“I cannot believe this,” Stein said. “They are making this even more of a travesty of justice.”

“I did not direct any of these things. It started on Facebook,” Stein said of a rally held in Lexington on Saturday and a rally at the Capitol on Tuesday before the Senate went into session.

Kentuckians for the Commonwealth helped organize the rally Tuesday afternoon but was not involved in the altercation.

Stein said some people who attended Tuesday’s Senate session were constituents whom she has known for a long time.

“Some of those people I have no idea what their names are,” Stein said.

Stein said that the Republican majority is grasping at straws, adding, “This has gotten completely out of hand.”

Police questioned Trask in the office area of Senate President David Williams, R-Burkesville after the altercation, and Trask was taken out of the Capitol in handcuffs at 3:43 p.m.

The altercation occurred outside Williams’ office and the state Senate shortly after the Senate had adjourned for the day.

About 25 supporters of Stein had been in the gallery of the Senate to hear her deliver a floor speech criticizing the Republican-controlled Senate’s decision last week to move her district from Lexington to northeastern Kentucky. The move effectively removes Stein, who often criticizes Williams, out of the Senate for at least two years after she completes this year’s term.

Throughout Stein’s speech, her supporters sometimes clapped and cheered loudly.

Williams used his gavel to quiet the crowd and once warned that he would have the gallery cleared if another “outburst” occurred.

Minutes after the Senate adjourned, shouts could be heard in the hallway.

Williams was in the chaos, but witnesses said he did not touch anyone and no one touched him.

Williams had no immediate comment on the situation.

Stivers, who saw part of the chaotic scene, said, “It was evident from my perspective that Sen. Kathy Stein had brought people over here who were not handling themselves appropriately in the gallery. They were hissing and booing and clapping.”

Some Senate members were confronted by the Stein supporters when they left the Senate chamber, Stivers said.

Some of the supporters “started putting their fingers in the face of the Senate president” and Barton.

Someone grabbed Barton by the neck, and Williams called for additional security, Stivers said.

Stivers called the situation “abhorrent” and said it was done to demean the Senate. “I would lay that completely at the feet of Sen. Kathy Stein.”

Stivers said he saw “somebody’s hand on Barton’s neck” and identified him as the man arrested. He said Senate leaders did not request the arrest and that the state police decision to arrest the man was based on what they saw and information they obtained.

“It was what I would describe as violence,” Stivers said.

The Republican floor leader said he will talk to Senate Minority Leader R.J. Palmer, D-Winchester, about maintaining decorum in the Senate.

David Wheldon of Frankfort, a Stein supporter, said he saw a young man in an altercation “with a man in a suit” as he left the gallery.

“They were in the process of arresting this fellow. Three officers arrested him. He was from Lexington. They was a lot of shoving going on,” Wheldon said.

He said he was standing by fellow Stein supporters Karen Conley and April Browning, both of Lexington.

“They were being shoved and the officers got very aggressive with them. I interjected myself between them and the officers,” Wheldon said.

Filed Under: David Williams • KY General Assembly