Ex-priest convicted of assaulting photographer
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Ex-priest convicted of assaulting photographer
- Donald Kimball faces up to six years in prison for attacking news photographer.
Feb. 20, 2003 — Former Catholic priest Donald Wren Kimball was convicted Tuesday of felony assault, felony vandalism and misdemeanor battery by a Sonoma County jury for shoving a news photographer’s camera into her face while she was covering his trial at the Sonoma County, Calif. courthouse.
Though he has yet to be sentenced, Kimball faces three to six years for the assault.
While on trial for child molestation in April 2002 Kimball shoved San Francisco Chronicle photographer Penni Gladstone’s camera into her face, breaking her glasses, and snatched a digital camera out of her hand before throwing it toward (Santa Rosa) Press Democrat reporter Clark Mason.
Gladstone, 49, suffered cuts and bruises under her right eye. Her monetary damages were $4,500 for the broken camera and glasses. In California, vandalism resulting in damages that exceed $400 is a felony offense.
Last spring Kimball was found guilty of molesting a 13-year-old girl inside a Healdsburg, Calif., rectory in 1981. He was sentenced to seven years in prison but is free on $250,000 bail while the state law used to prosecute him is reviewed by the U.S. Supreme Court.
(California v. Kimball) — KD
© 2003 The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press
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