Reporter Accused of Stabbing Officer With Pen
NORTH HOLLYWOOD — A reporter for the Star supermarket tabloid has been charged with stabbing a Los Angeles police officer with a ballpoint pen after police refused to grant an interview about the death of William Shatner’s wife.
Prosecutors said David Pearson Sargeant, 39, was at the North Hollywood police station about 2:40 a.m. Tuesday, demanding to speak with detectives investigating the apparently accidental drowning of Nerine Shatner.
When he was told the detectives were unavailable, he reportedly became irate.
“He created this big scene. He wouldn’t leave,” Deputy Dist. Atty. Larry Diamond said.
When Officer Joseph Miranda approached Sargent to arrest him, Sargeant allegedly stabbed the officer twice in the right hand with his ballpoint pen.
Diamond said a local television news cameraman who witnessed the incident ran “to get to get the biggest police officer he [could] find.”
Sargeant is 5-feet-11 and 230 pounds, officials said.
Sargeant was charged with one count of battery on a police officer causing injury, a felony that carries a maximum three-year prison sentence.
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