Man faces assault charges after incident at Newport city council meeting
NEWPORT, R.I. (WLNE) — A man is facing simple assault and disorderly conduct charges after an incident that happened during a discussion about offshore wind at a Newport city council meeting.
Newport police had been searching for the identity of the man, who they did find and arrest within a couple of days.
The man, who has since been identified as David Booth by spectators at the meeting, allegedly grabbed a bag of blade fragments from attendee Constance Gee, and tried to take a fiberglass shard from her hands.
Booth, according to a release sent by State Representative Patricia Morgan, is a field director for Climate Jobs Rhode Island.
Morgan stated in her release that Booth was pictured on the campaign website of Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, and since the incident, Booth’s photo had “mysteriously disappeared.”
Morgan further states that Whitehouse should have came out publicly to condemn the incident.
In a statement to ABC6 news, Whitehouse’s team said the individual the background of this photo is not an employee of the office or affiliated with the campaign.
