Lawyer Says His Remarks Are Protected Speech

Defiant and unrepentant, a defense attorney said Tuesday that he had a free-speech right to call a bailiff an “ass.”

Daniel Thor Hustwit, 31, of Century City is on trial for allegedly challenging the bailiff to a fight after a contentious hearing in the Van Nuys Courthouse on March 14.

“It’s a colossal waste of time and money,” Hustwit said of his prosecution. “They are charging me with just words, and in this country, words are not criminal.”

Hustwit testified that he was provoked by the bailiff, Michael Ascolese, to issue the challenge.

Hustwit told the seven-woman, five-man jury he never intended to act on the heated remarks and added that they are protected speech under the 1st Amendment. If convicted, he could be sentenced to a maximum of 90 days in County Jail.

The pony-tailed defendant, who wore a gray suit and a gold hoop earring, admitted telling bailiff Ascolese, “If you want a piece of me, take off your gun and badge and let’s go outside.”

He also testified that he called Ascolese and Deputy Dist. Atty. Michael Pargament “asses” at least 25 times that day.

Nevertheless, Hustwit told jurors that those words and others were precipitated by insensitive remarks by the prosecutor and the bailiff during the sentencing of one of his clients.

Hustwit said he believed he overheard Ascolese ask the prosecutor “something to the effect of . . . ‘Is that all he got?’ ”

Hustwit won that legal joust, securing a three-year sentence for his client, who was accused of perjury, instead of the term of 25 years to life sought by the prosecutor.

In another unusual twist in the case, the judge allowed Hustwit’s defense attorney Charles Kelly Kilgore to be called as a witness and questioned by Hustwit.

The case is expected to go to the jury by Friday.

Hustwit was originally charged with using offensive words in a public place inherently likely to provoke an immediate violent reaction. Those charges were reduced last week. If convicted, Hustwit faces a $400 fine in addition to the jail term.