Yikes, this goes back a ways. Kenneth Gladney was a guy who attended at rally in St. Louis and claimed he was attacked by “union thugs”.
He had his day in court this week and, as Media Matters reports, he lost big time.
It took a St. Louis County jury less than 50 minutes to return a not guilty verdict in the assault trial featuring Kenneth Gladney and two union members who were charged with attacking him outside a two hall event during the tumultuous summer of 2009.
Original reporting by the St. Louis Post Dispatch is HERE.
This comes as no surprise to me. I blogged about it several times while it was ongoing. The first thing I reported was that (a) Gladney had no health insurance and was begging for money to help pay his medical bill (ironic because he was at a rally protesting health insurance reform) and (b) it was very clear the only person injured in the altercation was an SEIU man while Gladney seemed actually just fine until the cameras arrived.
Kenneth Gladney sat in a wheelchair on Pershing Avenue Saturday, his knee bandaged, holding a flag that read: “Don’t Tread on Me.”Gladney, 38, was handing out the same flags after a town hall forum in Mehlville Thursday night, when, he says, he was attacked by members of the Service Employees International Union.
Less than 48 hours later, protesters gathered Saturday in front of the union’s offices, many of them holding signs with a slightly different version of the message: “Don’t Tread on Kenny.”
Supporters cheered. [His attorney, David] Brown finished by telling the crowd that Gladney is accepting donations toward his medical expenses. Gladney told reporters he was recently laid off and has no health insurance.
I blogged a second time about Gladney, a post that ended up making it to the front page of the Huffington Post where I reported that Gladney had actually lied about not having health insurance and was conning people out of their money.
Brown said, contrary to recent reports like [the] one from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Gladney wasn’t laid off and has health insurance. “He’s just unemployed,” says Brown, and “has insurance through his wife.” … Meanwhile, though Gladney appears to be just fine in the video right after he was supposedly beaten up, he showed up the next day at a tea party event in a wheelchair. At the event, Bill Hennessy, the organizer of the St. Louis tea parties, asked the crowd to donate money to Gladney to help him pay for his injuries, despite the fact that he now says he has insurance. When I asked Brown about this, he said: “Well, who doesn’t need a donation? If people want to give him a donation because he’s injured and unemployed, that’s up to them.” Brown said Gladney has raised about $1,100 in donations so far.
So, to review: Gladney faked being injured and then lied about not having health insurance to con people out of their money.
I’m surprised it took the jury 50 whole minutes.
