Accused Philly gay-basher Kathryn Knott testified in court on Tuesday that she did not physically assault or hurl gay slurs at a gay couple savagely beaten in City Center last year.
Kathryn Knott, 25, took the stand Tuesday in her own defense in the September 2014 attack that left one man with a broken jaw and severe facial injuries.
Knott, leaving a birthday celebration with a large group of friends, said that she ran toward the fight initially to try to defuse it.
Two male co-defendants have pleaded guilty and received probation – and were barred from downtown – but Knott chose to fight the charges. She faces several years in prison if convicted of aggravated assault and other crimes.
Previously, the jury in the case saw the full damage wreaked on the gay couple at the center of this case.
RELATED: Jury Hears from Victim, Sees Injuries in Day 2 of Philly Gay Basher Kathryn Knott's Trial – WATCH
On the stand, Knott was forced to confront and answer for her history of anti-gay tweets. Knott insisted that she did not see any of her tweets as using gay slurs or derogatory language.
Here, a brief examination of how Knott's tweets do display anti-gay animus (the below redaction of Knott's response to each tweet is provided by Philadelphia Magazine):
@krisssstenxoxo the ppl we were just dancing with just turned and mafe out with eatch other #gay #ew — Knott said she was actually disgusted by the public display of affection, and not the fact that the people were gay. She said she had many gay friends and relatives and would never use that word as a slur to a gay person.
Using the hashtag #gay immediately following #ew and signaling your disgust towards same-sex kissing makes Knott's use of “gay” derogatory.
this camo song is gay like all the other brad paisley songs — Knott said she is a huge country music and Brad Paisley fan, but did not like this particular song.
Again, when you say “that's gay”, do you realize what you say? Saying something that you don't like is “gay” is a gay slur.
@g0_nads he's gonna rip me today for my hair..just wait. #dyke — Knott said she looked like a mess that day, and this tweet was a way to tell her coworker this.
The above rule regarding the use of the word “gay” also applies to the word “dyke”, which is in-and-of-itself a gay slur.
Jazz flute is for little fairy boys — This tweet is a quote from the movie Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy.
Quoting something that is homophobic, regardless of how mainstream it is, does not make it less homophobic.
RELATED: Meet Accused Philadelphia Gay Basher Kathryn Knott
Thankfully, prosecutors pressed Knott on her defense of her tweets. Though Knott never owned up to using hate speech:
When asked by Assistant District Attorney Mike Barry if “dyke” was a hateful word, she said it wasn't. She said the word “wasn't on her everyday vocabulary list” but that she didn't see it as a slur. “I think our interpretation of words is different,” Knott said. “What's said there is not demeaning to anyone.” Knott also said, since she's used it in the past, that “it's OK” to use the word gay to mean something uncool. “I just used it in a very loose way,” she said. “I didn't mean it in a derogatory way.”
ADA Barry then quoted several lines from Anchorman, including “Stay classy, San Diego.” She said she doesn't consider her tweet, which is a line said by Christina Applegate's Veronica Corningstone character, offensive. “It's a line from a movie,” she testified. She did say she wouldn't use any of the words in her tweet when speaking with a gay person.
Knott's story of what happened on the night of September 11, 2014 was also called into question by prosecutors:
The prosecution challenged several of Knott's statements, including her statement she had just one glass of wine during a three-hour dinner party. The jury was also shown a video, which has not been released to the press but has been shown multiple times in court, that does not show any employees banging on the FedEx Office windows. No banging from the FedEx store is heard in the video.
When asked why she didn't call 911 or go to the police, Knott said her friend who went to Philadelphia Police, Fran McGlinn, was “fired on the spot” for doing so. (The friend went to police the next week, and not the night of the incident.) Knott was eventually fired from her job at Abington Hospital for tweeting potentially sensitive patient information when her feed became public knowledge.
She said she didn't know Haught was seriously hurt — he broke his jaw in the incident — and ran away because she was bothered by the incident. She said she was fearful someone would attack her. A photo shows her leaving the scene with Williams. “You were so bothered,” Barry said. “You went out with him afterward?” The group of 15 went to Tir Na Nog for about 30-45 minutes after the incident. Knott said she heard ambulances going by, but did not connect them to the incident because “it's Center City. There are ambulances all over the place.”
Watch video of Knott leaving the courthouse, below:
