Bizarre, Criminal law

Panthers Fan Arrested After Viral Video Of His Assaulting 62-Year-Old Man

download-3download-2Kyle Adam Maraghy has been arrested after a viral videotape shows him beating a 62-year-old man who simply asked him to sit down at the recent Panthers-Philadelphia game.  Maraghy and his girlfriend represent the worst of fans today at stadiums. As we have previously discussed, I do not go with my family to football games because of all of the loud and obnoxious drunks in the stands.  In this case, however, Maraghy, 26, is facing jail time for his unprovoked and brutal assault, though not nearly as much as he should be facing.

Maraghy was reportedly standing and being obnoxious when the victim asked him repeatedly to sit down and stop acting like a “jerk.”  Maraghy, wearing a Panthers jersey, turned and beat the man — as the girl verbally assaults him.  They then fled the stadium.

The good news is that the Panthers helped identify Maraghy and Panthers Executive Director of Risk Management Lance Emory said that “The behavior exhibited by the perpetrator is unacceptable and will not be condoned at Bank of America Stadium.” Maraghy therefore might be barred from the stadium despite his Panthers tattoo reading “Keep Pounding.”

What is notable is how unruly the girlfriend is during the assault.  It does not appear the police are considering a public disturbance or similar charge against the woman.

Maraghy graduated high school in 2009 and attended Mitchell Community College.  He has a criminal record including violent crimes. In 2011, he was arrested for possession of LSD.  In 2013, he was charged with assault and battery as well as a later arrest for assault.  Then in 2015, he was charged with reckless driving.

Maraghy’s criminal record could prove important.  The problem for prosecutors is that the attack is not likely to be found to constitute “serious bodily injury” for the purposes of a felony charge.  This criteria is defined in § 14-32.4

“as bodily injury that creates a substantial risk of death, or that causes serious permanent disfigurement, coma, a permanent or protracted condition that causes extreme pain, or permanent or protracted loss or impairment of the function of any bodily member or organ, or that results in prolonged hospitalization.”

Disorderly conduct is also treated as a misdemeanor in line with assault and battery.

The assumption is that the injuries to the victim will be deemed minor.  If that is the case, the charge in North Carolina will usually be a Class 2  with a likelihood of probation and a sentence from one to 30 days in jail. However, that sentence is doubled to 60 days for someone with a record with a fine of up to $1,000.  That still strikes me as remarkably light for such an unprovoked assault.

An effort to upgrade the charge to a Class 1 assault and battery would still result in a misdemeanor charge but would allow a longer sentence.  Since no weapon was used, the focus would be on whether the injuries were serious. This usually means injuries required medical attention, which could conceivably apply.  A Class A1 misdemeanor is punishable by probation, supervised probation, or a jail sentence of one to 60 days. However, a prior record allows a sentence of up to 150 days.  Again, that seems a tad light.

 

What do you think?

 

 

73 thoughts on “Panthers Fan Arrested After Viral Video Of His Assaulting 62-Year-Old Man”

  2. Male anger and violence is a serious public health issue. When these violent men act out in public, imagine what they are like in private.

    1. Neither anger nor violence are ‘public health issues’, except in the minds of public health specialists who’ve lost interest in real diseases and are interested in behavior manipulations in service to their social ideology.

      1. The History of Violence as a Public Health Issue

        When and how violence was recognized as a matter for national—and then global—public health intervention

        https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/pdf/history_violence-a.pdf

        2002
        WHO publishes the first World Re- port on Violence and Health.
        The National Violent Death Re- porting System launches in six states. This was the first state-based surveillance system to link data from multiple sources with the goal of en- hancing violence prevention efforts. In 2004, the system is expanded to include 17 states.

        2006
        CDC launches Choose Respect, the first national communication initia- tive designed to prevent unhealthy relationship behaviors and dating abuse

        2007
        CDC publishes a study that esti- mates the medical and productiv- ity-related costs of violence in the United States exceed $70 billion each year.

        1. From the linked article, above:

          “Violence is now clearly recognized as a public health problem, but just 30 years ago the words “violence” and “health” were rarely used in the same sentence. Several important trends contributed to a growing recognition and acceptance that violence could be addressed from a public health perspective. First, as the United States became more successful in preventing and treating many infectious diseases, homicide and suicide rose in the rankings of causes of death. Tuberculosis and pneumonia were the two leading causes of death at the turn of the 20th century. By mid-century, the incidence and mortality from these infectious diseases along with others such as yellow fever, typhus, poliomyelitis, diphtheria, and pertussis were dramatically reduced through public health measures such as sanitary control of the environment, isolation of contagious disease cases, immunization, and the application of new therapeutic and medical techniques. Since 1965, homicide and suicide have consistently been among the top 15 leading causes of death in the United States.

          “There are other reasons why violence became a greater focus for public health. The risk of homicide and suicide reached epidemic proportions during the 1980s among specific segments of the population including youth and members of minority groups. Suicide rates among adolescents and young adults 15 to 24 years of age almost tripled between 1950 and 1990.3 Similarly, from 1985 to 1991 homicide rates among 15- to 19-year-old males increased 154 percent, a dramatic departure from rates of the previous 20 years for this age group.4 This increase was particularly acute among young African American males. These trends raised concerns and provoked calls for new solutions.

          “Another important development was the increasing acceptance within the public health community of the importance of behavioral factors in the etiology and prevention of disease. It is now generally accepted that prevention of three of the leading causes of death in the United States—heart disease, cancer, and stroke—rests largely on behavioral modifications such as exercise, changes in diet, and smoking cessation. Successes in these areas encouraged public health professionals to believe that they could accomplish the same for behavioral challenges underlying interpersonal violence and suicidal behavior. Finally, the emergence of child maltreatment and intimate partner violence as recognized social problems in the 1960s and 1970s demonstrated the need to move beyond sole reliance on the criminal-justice sector in solving these problems.”

          1. Verbose renderings of the stupid do not make the stupid something smart.

        2. When and how violence was recognized as a matter for national—and then global—public health intervention

          No, that’s an account of public health agencies which (1) don’t have enough to do or (2) are manifesting a loss of institutional focus consequent to social ideology.

    2. Ahh, the mellifluous tones of the voice of the artifice of “Affirmative Action Privilege” and generational welfare, zealously executing the duties of the Feminazi Gaystapo.

      Merit shall have no bearing here!

      Indubitably, we must hate those pesky males, especially the “white” ones.

  3. I use to be a boxer fan. Here’s Ray Boom Boom Mancini in the ring with Duk Koo Kim.

    Duk Koo Kim died from the punishing blows of Ray. Had a friend, a Cherokee Indian golden glove boxer. He said make a fist as hard as you can & slam it into the jaw for a knock out.

  4. Off Topic –

    260 requests for “unmasking” were submitted by Samantha Power, the Ambassador to the UN under President Obama, during an election year.

    The FBI hid documents describing interviews and e-mails regarding the actions of former AG Loretta Lynch when she was confronted by Bill Clinton on the tarmac of the Phoenix airport.

    “Unmasking” for political purposes and conspiracy and collusion by the FBI.

    Obama’s abuse of power is the greatest political scandal in American history.

    1. How do you know it was for political purposes?

      How do you know that the “meeting on the tarmac” had a nefarious agenda, or even any agenda at all?

      2. Of course you’re correct. I apologize. I won’t mention it again. The “unmasking” was simply coincidental with a presidential election which held the potential to wipe out the globalist, democrat agenda and Obama’s legacy, and who would ever be concerned with a friendly conversation about the “grand kids” between the AG, Loretta Lynch, who was directing the bizarre, rogue FBI Director during the coronation campaign of Hillary Clinton, and the de facto head of the democrat party, Bill Clinton?

        My bad!

  5. Kyle Adam Maraghy is a thug. At his current rate, he will likely end up spending a good deal of his life in jail. He has shown a pattern of a failure to learn how to coexist in society. Past predicts future, so Mashy will foreseeably keep breaking the law until he finally rots there.

    From my perspective as a civilian, jail is supposed to bring justice, give the public a break, but also act as a deterrent. The punishment is supposed to be commensurate with the crime, so as crimes increase in severity, so does the punishment. The rational man who, for whatever reason, set upon the wrong path, is supposed to have the chance to learn to change his ways.

    Maraghy was given multiple warnings with his previous arrests. He is so far gone that he viciously punched an older man who stayed seated during the entire altercation. Plus he keeps company with an equally morally bankrupt woman. It must be rather difficult to teach empathy, morals, and a code of honorable conduct to someone so lacking in all at his age. How did his raising go so wrong?

    The silver lining is that others physically got involved to protect his victim, from using their arms to block Maraghy to physically dragging him off. Well done, Good Samaritans. And for the victim, I hope he feels better soon. It must have been emotionally traumatic, as well as painful.

    1. Watch the video of the repeated forceful punches. He was punching the victim with all of his might and strength. These weren’t just swings that were managing to make some contact. This attack goes well beyond being emotionally traumatic or simply painful. I suspect that this violent and out of control brute succeeded in breaking and crushing parts of the victim’s face. The clip is somewhat grainy, but from what I can see, it appears to be an attack using, what can be described as, deadly force.

      1. That’s just awful. That could cause any number of injuries on its own. And if the victim was on any blood thinners it could be even more serious. I’ve seen it happen before. Someone fell from a horse with a relatively minor bump on the noggin, but suffered a catastrophic brain injury because he was on blood thinners.

        What is wrong with people? They are not allowed to strike someone because they are upset or offended. That goes for Maraghy, Antifa, wife beaters, thugs, soccer hooligans, and anyone else who just can’t seem to grasp this simple concept central to a civilized society.

  6. Whatever the criminal sanction might be, we should not forget that the victim has a solid case in civil court. That’s where Maraghy will truly get p0wned.

      1. TSFS – if he can afford tickets low down, he may have actual assets, He just doesn’t dress like it. We see a lot of that is the West. Then again, he may just be a sports hooligan like England seems to spawn.

  7. Due to the disparity in age this could be considered assault with a deadly weapon-fist. As a former LEO I’ve seen people charged with that when they used their fists or feet to assault someone who was considerably older or infirm. Suppose this “sucker punch” caused an aneurism?

    The one sure way to make cretins like this either behave or take them out of society is to elevate these types of crimes, depending of course on the circumstances, to felonies. Since this guy appears to have a violent past I suggest it’s high time to remove him from the rest of us for about a good solid five years.

    1. I would agree. Especially with this horrible crime of
      ‘knock out punch game’ in its 5th year.
      I feel this is a form of attempted murder, because some have died from a ‘simple’ assault.

  8. Maraghy needs to sweep the disused runway on Johnson Atoll for the duration of his sentence.

  9. As far as I could see, he didn’t hit the old guy but the fellow next to the old guy.

    He’s a lout and a half. That he’s got his girlfriend with him is par for the course. His type know the market better than evangelical cookie-pushers do (http://www.claremont.org/crb/article/wimps-and-barbarians-the-sons-of-murphy-brown/)

    One thing you can do is contain the use of ‘alternatives to incarceration’. When these types land in court, apply an enhancement to their sentence for their previous offenses, a dispensation for their age, a dispensation if they enter a straight guilty plea (or an attenuated dispensation if they enter a negotiated plea). Limit the use of fines to violations of local ordinances, vehicle and traffic offenses, and appendices to low-grade misdemeanors. Limit the use of restitution to appendices in cases of theft, fraud, or vandalism. Limit the use of probation to defendants under 25, applying a dispensation to the statutory sentence which converts a portion of their sentence from incarceration to probation. Eliminate ‘community service’; tell local philanthropies they don’t get penal labor. One set of alternatives you might use would be the cane, the birch, and the pillory-and-stocks.

  10. Moderators-
    Please disallow comments which add no new ideas and only attack either Professor Turley or others who post.

    1. Chris P. Bacon slanders politicians, public officials, soldiers, and civil servants. Then he whines about ‘attacks’.

    2. If the moderators disallowed those who add no value, surely, you would have been censored long ago. A response, indicating that someone is clueless, in direct response to one who has, inappropriately, reprimanded a contributor to “learn the law” after a comment, is not an attack. Grow a pair and put your big boy pants on for once.

  11. Come to Lambeau Field in Green Bay where even the opposition’s fans are treated with respect and dignity. We may not be perfect, but we’re a long way from Philly behaviorally.

  12. Violence about sports teams is not limited to stadiums.

    A Vikings fan displayed an inflatable Vikings NFL player in front of his house. Then a 21 year old Green Bay fan stabbed him 7 times in the head with a box cutter. The 36 year old home owner said he owns a gun & has a permit to carry. The home owner said if he was armed that day with his gun, the 21 year old Green Bay fan would be dead.

    1. I suppose no alcohol was involved in the Green Bay incident but the attacker, it serms to me, should be charged with assault w intent to murder, not “reckless endangerment” which I assume is used when someone is caught speeding w a child in the car. I hope the attsckerbis off the street and in a gladiator academy for a nice long chill.

  13. Why does this descent into mayhem and pandemonium surprise anyone? Are any people truly shocked that stadiums are now being occupied with violent, belligerent beings, who have absolutely no respect for rules or laws, where they lack the ability to demonstrate even the most basic level of common decency? I’m not. Not in the least. A system gone mad. One need not look far to observe what is, instead, occurring on the field, as it is not so inconsistent with the atmosphere of, anything goes, in the seats–players, who, along with their counterparts, in the stands, demonstrating. . .quite unabashedly and without the requisite repercussions and ousting from the game. . .displaying their utter lack of respect for others and total lack of decency by refusing to stand during the playing of the national anthem. Do you think that those two are not two sides of the same coin? Think again. A feeling of impunity, where anything goes. A pervasive belief that rules be damned, where the individual–not civil society, much less the protocol and the standards imposed by the game–sets the rules and acceptable behavior. Want to create an atmosphere, where everyone feels safe and secure? Create an atmosphere where rules–yes, RULES–are strictly applied and enforced. Start on the field, by ousting every player refusing to stand for the national anthem, ripping up their contracts and banning them from the game. If one wants adherence to the rules in the stands, one needs to first begin with maintaining control and decorum on the field.

      1. The players are bound by the rules of the game. By the contracts which they have signed. By the regulations and dictates of the various owners of these teams. You are clueless, as usual.

        1. Not if the contracts are uninforceable, i.e., those elements in violation of labor law.

  14. Castration first. Eliminate his genes from the pool and calm him down a bit, like neutering an aggressive dog. Girlfriend should be sterilized too.

    Then some jail time.

    And them maybe contract someone from the classified section of Soldier of Fortune magazine.

  15. This unprovoked attack is awful and whatever punishment is meted out by the justice system will seem light to many of us.

    What strikes me is how our culture has devolved to a state where these attacks are commonplace. The only reason this violent degenerate will be punished is because someone had their phone out and captured it on video. How many other assaults occur each week at football, baseball and other stadiums around the world?

    I am waiting for a tipping point when society says, “Enough!”

    Sexual predation and assault is unacceptable and Harvey Weinstein is being made the poster boy for this bad behavior and may even (hopefully) face criminal prosecution. Maybe Harvey will actually clean up sexual misbehavior in the workplace.

    So, too, may Mr. Maraghy be made an example of and through public disgrace, being banned from the stadium and criminal prosecution deter other maniacal fans from acting out violently in the future.

    One can only hope!

    1. Aggravated assault is less common than it was 25 years ago. It’s a reasonable wager that common assault is as well.

    1. OK, you’ve given us a link to a museum curator’s historical fiction which is being propagated by the New York Times. No one cursorily familiar with the history of Chile over the period running from 1955 to 1973 would take it seriously (leaving aside the usual red-haze agitprop meisters employed by Marcus Raskin and Victor Navasky).

  18. I agree that the GF should also get punished. I don’t know how an unprovoked attack gets only 60 days but it is hard for the courts to put people in jail for these crimes because of overcrowding. I have to say Mr. Turley, that I often look to you on these issues after i’ve tried guessing how you would call it.

    1. It’s not hard, nor is ‘overcrowding’ inevitable. It’s a function of negligence by county-level politicians.

  20. Bar him for life and make him laser his tattoo off. The girlfriend should be charged with verbal abuse and banned for a year.

    1. Not sure about NC. In New York, there is no such offense as ‘verbal abuse’ in the Penal Law. There is ‘harassment’, ‘menacing’, and ‘disorderly conduct’. Don’t think you can prosecute someone for being a nasty beeyotch.

      1. TSFS – well, they are always adding to the criminal code. Adding nasty beeyotch to the criminal code would not be a problem. Still, it would probably fall under disturbing the peace, or harassment, and/or menacing. Whichever gets her banned for a year is fine with me.

          1. Nick – surprised the hell out of me. 🙂 There are no undefeated teams in the PAC-12 now. The defense we have been missing for 5 years finally showed up. 🙂 Graham has his job for another week. There is still a chance we could win the PAC-12 South and play WU for the PAC championship. Unlikely, we will probably be at .500 for the season, which makes it even worse for Udub to lose to us. I think I recorded the game, so I will have to see what it looks like. Sounds like Udub just could not get any traction going. If I didn’t record it will be in the abbreviated 1-hour PAC-12 channel segment later in the week.

            1. Paul, I hope I didn’t ruin it for you. My son-in-law records Minnesota Wild hockey games and I know to never divulge who won.

              1. Nick – I record the games, but only watch them if ASU wins. 😉 It hurts too much to watch them lose. First thing this morning, I checked the score. 🙂

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