Victims of brutal New Orleans attack relay their story and contradict police report, but uncertainty about attackers remains
Sat Apr 17, 1:19 pm ET
Yahoo News
The New Orleans Police Department has released the official police report in the case of the beating of Allee Bautsch and her boyfriend Joe Brown. Bautsch, a chief campaign fundraiser for Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, and Brown were attacked late last Friday night after leaving a political event in the French Quarter. Since the attack, questions have swirled in the conservative blogosphere about whether those attacks were politically motivated.
Contrary to
our initial report, the
NOPD is now saying that it does not know whether or not the attacks were politically motivated and the police report lists the motive as unknown. However, Allee Bautsch's mother, Della Berning, has now joined a friend of Bautsch's in telling Yahoo! News that, contrary to what Brown initially told police, Bautsch and Brown do believe that the attackers were a group of political protesters who followed them after they left the event. Their recollection is not conclusive, of course, and they admit to having no knowledge of the attackers' underlying motivations.
According to Berning, Bautsch and Brown are recovering from their injuries and the trauma of the attack, and so are not speaking directly to the media. However, the couple authorized her to come forward with their account of the attack. Berning told Yahoo! News that she reconfirmed with her daughter each detail of the account she offered via email and phone.
For the most part, the police report and Berning's account of the assault on Bautsch and Brown line up. Bautsch and Brown attended a Republican Party fundraiser that coincided with the Southern Republican Leadership Conference that happened in New Orleans that week. The event drew protesters, some of whom remained after it concluded.
According to the police report, after Brown and Bautsch left the event, Brown said that he heard "cat calls" but wasn't sure whether they were directed at him and his girlfriend "or if they were simply outbursts of drunken revelers." Soon after, though, "he heard subjects state things such as 'Little blonde bitch,' 'You're a f------- lovely human,' and 'You think you're f------ special'" and realized they were directed at Bautsch and him. A few minutes later, the group caught up with him and Bautsch and attacked them, resulting in a Bautsch's broken leg and Brown's concussion, fractured nose and fractured jaw.
The police report and the subsequent account of the attack that Bautsch and Brown gave to Bautsch's mother mainly differ on the question of whether the attackers were from the group protesting the fundraiser. According to the police report, Brown told them that he "was unsure if the attackers were protestors." Berning says her daughter and Brown believe that they were.
Berning explained that on the night of the attack, because of the furious nature of the assault and the late night, the two didn't want to say for certain that they knew the identity of the attackers. "You don't want to say something like that to the police" and get someone in trouble with the law, she explained, "unless you're absolutely sure."
But while they don't claim certainty, Bautsch and Brown believe the attackers did come from the group of protesters. Berning said the two felt followed immediately after leaving the restaurant where the protesters were, and the attackers looked like some they had seen in front of the restaurant.
Of course, even if Bautsch and Brown's recollection is correct and the attackers did come from the group protesting the event, they can't know for sure what their motives were. Their account of the non-political nature of the verbal assault matches the one Brown gave police and the homophobic, misogynistic nature of the insults would be unusual coming the kind of person one might expect to protest a Republican fundraiser.
And Berning was emphatic that, while Bautsch and Brown believe they were attacked by members of the protest, they can't know what the attackers underlying beliefs were.
"You know, I don't want to label them or be too quick to judge," she said. "I don't want to try to define Republicans and Democrats here. I want to be an American first."
Although the possible political nature of the episode has drawn national media attention, Berning said the family "is not really concerned with the politics of the whole thing" at this point, adding that their main concern was the well-being of Bautsch and Brown and that the NOPD find the perpetrators of the attack.
The attackers remain at large, and their motives and identity remain in question.
Brett Michael Dykes is a national affairs writer for and Andrew Golis is the editor of the Yahoo! News blog.
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