Emanuel Pleads Not Guilty in Two Battery Cases

Aaron Emanuel, who is accused of striking two female USC students in separate incidents, pleaded not guilty Wednesday to misdemeanor battery charges in Pasadena Municipal Court.

Emanuel’s attorney, Lawrence Elkins, said later that his client acted in self defense and was physically provoked when he allegedly punched USC heptathlete Sharon Hatfield at an off-campus party May 4.

Elkins also criticized the procedures of a three-person administrative review panel that recently suspended Emanuel, a USC tailback for two seasons, from school for a year.

He said he read the opinion of the review board and found its “fact-finding process curiously shallow.”

Elkins also said that Hatfield would have been sanctioned by the board, but that it didn’t have any jurisdiction over her because she was graduating. Sources close to Hatfield denied that allegation.

In addition to being suspended from school, Emanuel was ordered by the USC Office of Student Affairs to complete 100 hours of community service with victims of violence and to undergo psychiatric treatment once a month while serving his suspension.

It was learned that if Emanuel complies with this program, he could be reinstated as a student for the spring semester in 1988.

However, Emanuel will not be on the football team next season. Asked if he intends to transfer to a different school, he said: “I can’t talk about it now. I’ll take each decision one by one. Right now we have to get the court stuff done.”

Besides entering a plea of not guilty, Elkins filed a motion asking for separate trials of the two cases.

Emanuel allegedly slapped and pushed a beer bottle into the face of USC student Tammy Baird in a December incident at a bar near the campus.

Elkins’ motion for separate trials will be heard June 30 in the Pasadena Municipal Court.

“I hope to take this (Hatfield) case to trial the first week of August, depending on how fast our investigations are completed,” Elkins said. “We welcome a trial in a court of law. The standards used in a court are much more conducive to a full revelation of the truth than anything they did at USC.

“Even though Emanuel was suspended from USC, it should be taken with a grain of salt. It has no bearing on his guilt.”

Elkins said that the prosecution is trying to strengthen its case by linking the two battery counts together in one trial.

“It doesn’t matter where the case is tried,” Elkins said. “Mr. Emanuel is innocent of any wrongdoing as a matter of law and a matter of ethics. We intend to prove that.”

Elkins said that both cases had been “overblown,” adding that Hatfield is “not a dainty 5-foot 2-inch co-ed, but a muscle-bound, 5-foot-10 heptathlete.”

In Hatfield’s complaint, she said that Emanuel pinched her on the buttocks. She told sheriff’s investigators that when it seemed that he would persist, she threw beer in his face. Then, he allegedly punched her. She was reportedly knocked unconscious and suffered a concussion and a foot injury while falling that prevented her from competing in the recent National Collegiate Athletic Assn. track and field meet.

Elkins had a different version.

“The blow (Emanuel’s) was just human reaction,” he said. “You have to remember Emanuel and Miss Hatfield were, at least, acquaintances and this took Emanuel by surprise.

“He comes up behind her, bam, she fires on him, hits him and throws some beer in his face and I think before he knew what had happened he struck her. It’s as simple as that.”

Emanuel let his attorney do the talking but he shook his head when asked if he had pinched Hatfield on the buttocks.

“We intend to show there was no such thing as a pinch,” Elkins said.

According to people who have read the report of the USC review board, Emanuel allegedly admitted to “humbly” pinching Hatfield.

Sources close to Hatfield say that the athlete denies that she struck Emanuel, thus provoking him, and only threw beer on him when it seemed that he was going to pinch her a second time.

As for the review board, which included a faculty member, a student and a staff member, Elkins said: “They suspend a man based on a set of facts which, by their own admission, were incomplete. When I’ve completed my review of USC’s documents, we’ll say more.”

He added: “I’m not advocating any man striking a woman. I’m not advocating violence. What I’m saying is there is such a thing as self-defense and that will be an issue in the Sharon Hatfield matter.

“I want to know what Miss Hatfield was thinking when she threw the beer in Emanuel’s face and we’re going to show that she not only threw beer in his face, but that she struck him. And this striking was premediated, and why wasn’t that further explored by USC?

“There were a number of witnesses (at the review board hearing) who testified on Emanuel’s behalf and, in fact, verified that he was struck by Miss Hatfield just prior to the time she threw beer in his face,” Elkins said.

“One witness said she didn’t see any blow by Miss Hatfield and Miss Hatfield can’t seem to remember what happened. . . . (The board) simply said something to the effect that they couldn’t verify whether it did, or did not happen. ‘So we’ll more or less let this alone and expel the man.’ ”

Elkins added that Emanuel had apologized to Hatfield later and in “20 minutes everything was back to normal.”

Sources close to Hatfield disagreed with that statement.

Of the two counts against Emanuel, one carries a maximum penalty of a year in the county jail. The other carries a maximum penalty of six months in county jail, a $2,000 fine, or both.