-- by the Associated Press
CINCINNATI - A heckler who briefly interrupted a speech by Democrat John Kerry on Wednesday said he was assaulted by two men near him in the crowd before others shouted him down with cries of "Kerry, Kerry."
Police said Michael Russell, 48, of Foster, Ky., complained that his neck was hurt by a man who put him in a headlock after Russell started to yell about Kerry's allegation of war atrocities after returning from Navy service in Vietnam. City police were investigating. No charges had been filed Wednesday, police spokesman Lt. Kurt Byrd said.
Russell, in a telephone interview Wednesday afternoon, said he had been trying to ask Kerry whether he had personally participated in atrocities in Vietnam including burning villages. Russell said he also wanted to ask whether Kerry would release his military records.
Russell said he was then grabbed by the man standing next to him in the audience.
"He grabbed me and put me in a headlock, twisting it pretty hard. I was trying to get away from him, then I was shoved to the floor and kicked," Russell said. "By that time, I just wanted to get out of there."
Russell said he is a Republican who ran unsuccessfully for judge-executive, the chief administrative post in Bracken County, Ky., in 2000 and worked for the Bush-Cheney campaign that year by putting out campaign signs.
Secret Service agents took Russell away from the scene of the scuffle and outside the Cincinnati Museum Center, a former railroad terminal. Russell was released because he had not presented any threat to Kerry, said James Emery, agent in charge of the Secret Service's Cincinnati office.
A man wearing a Sheet Metal Workers union shirt who was sitting next to the heckler grabbed him and put him in a headlock. Two other men sitting nearby joined in and pushed the heckler to the ground.
"I have nothing but the greatest respect for people's right to have their opinions and to express them here in the United States of America. That's who we are as Americans," Kerry said. "And I might add, it's a terrific tactic of the Bush team, they love to disrupt, they love to interrupt. They don't want America to hear the truth, but we will talk the truth."
Reporters who followed Russell outside to try to talk with him were ordered by Kerry campaign staffers to return inside immediately or risk not being allowed back in to hear the speech.
Kerry campaign spokesman David Wade told reporters that the heckler was Mike Russell, who is listed as a spokesman for the anti-Kerry group Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. The group has accused Kerry of lying about military heroism for which he received medals.
But the Mike Russell with Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, when contacted Wednesday at his office in Alexandria, Va., said he was not at the speech in Cincinnati.
"It's an obvious ploy by the Kerry campaign not only to discredit this organization but to steal my identity," Russell said.
This article was published by the Lexington Herald-Leader
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