Columbia. Mo. — The trial of a former Kansas University student arrested after a dispute with the University of Missouri-Columbia police chief during a basketball game between the two rival schools has been postponed until December.
Andrew Wymore and his Columbia attorney appeared in court this morning, prepared to defend him against the trespassing charge, filed when he tried to re-enter the March 6 Missouri-Kansas game. Wymore had been ejected from the arena after intervening in a dispute involving three fellow KU students and University of Missouri Police Chief Jack Watring concerning a 6-foot-long banner the students had put up.
Municipal Judge Robert Aulgar today granted a city prosecutor's request to postpone the trial because her primary witness, a second university police officer, was out of town.
Gerald Mueller, Wymore's attorney, wanted Aulgar to reject the city's request and throw out the charges. His client starts law school at the University of California-Los Angeles in two weeks and will be hard-pressed to return to Missouri during the fall semester, he said.
The two sides agreed on a Dec. 21 trial date.
After the hearing, Wymore reiterated his lack of interest in accepting a $50 plea bargain to avoid trial.
"Any plea would involve pleading guilty, which I'm not," he told reporters.
The banner poked fun at controversy over the renaming of Missouri's new arena from Paige Arena - named after the daughter of a $25 million donor - to Mizzou Arena after reports that Paige Laurie paid a University of Southern California roommate to complete her course work.
"Call it what you want, it'll always be Allen Fieldhouse East," the banner read, a reference to the hallowed Kansas basketball arena in Lawrence.
Watring - who attended the game as a fan - complained about the banner and tried to take it down.
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KansasTwister (anonymous) says…
The initial media reports sounded like the KU student was roughed up by the security, which included a high ranking law enforcement officer. There was even a Columbia citizen who stated that he felt the KU student didn't deserve the treatment he was getting. Yes, it was a stupid student prank. However, the overreaction by the law enforcement officer compounded the problem it seems to me. Just another reason while KU fans shouldn't attend games in Columbia.
pylon25 (anonymous) says…
Macon, Thats an absurd arguement. His actions were completely acceptable. He was doing nothing wrong, just displaying a banner. I bet your all for censorship in the media too, if you dont agree with the message, shoot the messenger right? The police chief had no right to make him remove that banner, and i think its great that he's standing up to that kind of treatment, i'd have done the same thing. If you lay down and take it, all it does is encourage that kind of behavior and treatment. Free speech is a right. And what does him standing up for his rights have to do with him being a "freak"? He displayed a banner showing his KU spirit, and was unfairly targeted and kicked out for no reason.
shotgun (anonymous) says…
Hey macon47,
Who is the Redneck?
Did you go to MU?
ryanjasondesch (anonymous) says…
Wow, it's amazing you can tell all that about his upbringing and his parents just from reading about this incident in the paper! The kids purchased tickets to a game and were ejected for something they received permission to do by an usher at the game. Maybe you could psycho-analyze the chief of police at Missouri for his unjustified insane outburst? Perhaps a little mommy and daddy didn't do any drugs but they both worked 14 hours a day and left the kid at daycare all the time so they could be good (i.e. productive, wealthy, etc) citizens,hence the kid has an attention and anger problem that led him to become a cop and hide his insecurities behind his gun and social position.
I wish he had 'wiped the floor with his punk ass' then we'd really have a media frenzy on our hands. I can picture you when you wrote that commet. You, foaming at the mouth, picturing yourself doing the ass-whooping on some 'punk kid'. You either don't remember your own youth or you're just a jaded old jerk anyway who lumps everyone who does things you disagree with into the 'raised irresponsibly by drugged out liberal hippies' category. Nice worldview, black and white, though I'm positive it sure makes things easier for you to understand in that simple 'those with values and those without' argument (Such a ridiculously unoriginal and irrational argument I'm surprised to see people still use it). Read up on your psychology before you go making an ass out of yourself. It's aggrevating for someone like me with a psych degree to see amateurs attempt it.
pity2bu (anonymous) says…
It's too bad that no-one here can get along in this liberal closed minded city such as Lawrence. Here they would have laid down the red PHOG carpet for the mu poster boys and gave them all warm fuzzies for bringing such posters to the basketball icon's temple.
You still complain when you travel to another city and find that they are not so liberal and don't think the way Lawrence Citizens do. They are a KICK A** City and they don't put up with that SH** from their citizens or visitors. Let's all hold hand and sing kum-ba-ya.
kum-ba-ya That Lawrence.
ryanjasondesch (anonymous) says…
First of all, 'Fag Allen Fieldhouse' is a completely different ballpark buddy. 'My mutual perversions'? What in the hell are you talking about? I settled my own case? Where in God's name did you learn reason, argument, and logic? Wherever you did, you're exhibit A for getting their credentials revoked. My psyche degree has nothing to do with the sign itself or their right to hang it (since they WERE given permission to do so). It has to do with your over the top and ill-informed attempt at classifying a young man you've never met and his parents. Shame on you. But hey, I'm not the one sitting at my computer gettin my panties all in a bunch over this, analyzing people through stereotypes and assumptions with a simple minded prejudiced view of others with outdated moral authority principles dictating my own misguided sense of righteousness, pissed off about what a miserable old piece of s**t I am I can't even give someone else the benefit of the doubt. For your sake I will quote a movie as obviously as dumb as you are: "In no part of you incoherent rambling did you even come close to something that could be considered a rational thought. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul."