A police chief's daughter and two male friends have been charged for allegedly brutally beating a gay couple in Philadelphia after inteet sleuths helped cops identify them.
Katherine Knott, the 24-year-old daughter of Chalfont Police Chief Karl Knott, Philip Williams, 24, and Kevin Harrigan, 26, tued themselves into Philadelphia Police early on Wednesday.
Prosecutors said the trio face criminal conspiracy, aggravated and simple assault and reckless endangerment charges for their alleged part in the vicious beating.
They were allegedly part of a group that approached a gay couple, aged 26 and 28, in Center City on the evening of September 11 and said to one of the men: 'Is that your f***ing boyfriend?'
The group then proceeded to beat up the men, leaving them bruised and hospitalized. One of the men needed to have his jaw wired shut.
The case gained national attention when police posted a video of the well-dressed suspects and online sleuths identified them by matching the footage with photos taken in nearby restaurants and shared online.
On Wednesday, Williams' attoey Fortunato Perri Jr. told reporters that the case was not related to sexual orientation, but was instead a 'mutual confrontation' in which his client 'was not the aggressor'.
Knott's attoey Louis Busico has also denied that the dispute was motivated by anti-gay bias and said his client neither threw any punches nor hurled any insults.
'My client played no role in this,' Busico told reporters on Wednesday.
As well as the three suspects, each of whom was photographed in a mugshot released by the police, another allegedly member of the group - who has not been arrested - has been fired from his job as a Catholic high school basketball coach.
Fran McGlinn, 25, was said to be among the dozen men and women when the group launched the attack on the couple.
Kenneth Gavin, a spokesman for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, told the Daily News that McGlinn has been fired and prohibited from working at any archdiocesan school.
Gavin said that McGlinn had been serving as a coach on a 'contract basis' at the high school and was not a teacher.
District Attoey Seth Williams said on Tuesday in announcing the charges that the case 'shocked the entire country'.
'An assault on people because of their sexual orientation has no place in Philadelphia,' he said.
Caught: Inteet sleuths then uncovered this photo of the same group out at a restaurant, leading them to identify some of the members. Cops thanked the inteet users for working so swiftly
Police had previously thanked members of the public for helping them track down suspects after they posted surveillance footage of the group online.
One inteet sleuth posted an image of the group he had received from a 'friend of a friend of a friend' showing the group dining out at a restaurant that evening.
Others identified the restaurant as La Viola and then another member of the public found out who had 'checked in' to the restaurant on Facebook - and matched the profiles with the group picture.
He then contacted authorities with a list of names.
Pennsylvania's hate-crimes law does not cover crimes motivated by a person's sexual orientation. Under current law, a hate crime includes incidents motivated by race, ethnicity, or religion.
Philadelphia Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey, along with openly gay state Rep. Brian Sims of Philadelphia and others, have said the case illustrates the need for a change in the law.
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