"Charlottesville’s chief prosecutor is recommending no charges be filed in connection with an Oct. 31 scuffle at a campaign stop for outgoing U.S. Sen. George Allen, R-Fairfax County.

“It’s a situation in which, frankly, if one person gets charged, then several people should be charged,” city Commonwealth’s Attorney Dave Chapman said Tuesday.

The tussle started when a liberal blogger named Michael Stark approached Allen during a rally at the Omni Charlottesville Hotel, asking whether the senator had ever spat on his first wife.

In response, several Allen supporters struggled with Stark, who is a first-year law student at the University of Virginia.

Stark has said since that he was simply asking his senator a question as a constituent, and that he was attacked without provocation.

Allen supporters, however, have said Stark was belligerent and aggressively moving toward Allen and U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole, R-N.C., who was also at the event.

Local television stations captured the end of the struggle. By mid-afternoon footage of former Albemarle GOP chairman John Darden wrestling Stark to the ground was airing nationwide.

Darden said Tuesday that he stood between the senators and Stark because he didn’t know Stark’s intentions.

“It was an incident where I truly felt that Sen. Allen and Sen. Dole were in harm’s way,” he said. “The guy was very aggressive in his behavior. I truly didn’t know what he had planned. I just kind of acted out of instinct and tried to shield Sen. Allen from him, and it kind of progressed from there.”

Stark went to the Charlottesville Police Department that afternoon to press charges.

City police took his statement and investigated the incident over the following weeks, reviewing video footage from two local television stations and interviewing witnesses.

That investigation concluded this week with Chapman’s recommendation that no charges be filed.

“While several individuals could be charged with one or more misdemeanor offenses such as assault and battery or disorderly conduct, it is apparent from the evidence that no participant sought to strike or injure another person,” Chapman, a Democrat, wrote in a release.

Stark said Tuesday that he is unhappy with the decision.

“If you can’t ask your senator a question without risk of being attacked, then I think there is a chill there,” he said. “I just found out today, and my reaction is just extreme disappointment.”

The prosecutor’s decision doesn’t mean no criminal charges can be filed, however.

Those involved with the scuffle could still go before a magistrate and try to swear out a warrant, Chapman said.

“Part of our delay in releasing the statement was to ensure that the detective in the case had the opportunity to call the involved people to let them know of our recommendation, and make sure that they knew that if they wanted to they could go to the magistrate and request a warrant,” the prosecutor said.

Stark wouldn’t comment Tuesday on whether he would pursue a warrant through the magistrate’s office, saying only that he was weighing his options with his attorney.

Darden said he will not go before the magistrate to seek charges against Stark." (Rob Seal, The Daily Progress, November 29, 2006)

Editor's Note: An index to coverage of George Allen on the Loper website may be found at http://loper.org/~george/archives/2006/Aug/925.html