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Bride, Groom Dispute Ross Cops' Version Of Wild Hotel Brawl

Newlyweds Spend Night In Jail After Fracas At Holiday Inn

POSTED: 9:39 am EDT April 28, 2008
UPDATED: 6:10 pm EDT May 5, 2008

Police said a couple brawled with one another, then members of another wedding party, just hours after repeating their vows and heading to a Ross Township hotel room.

But David and Christa Wielechowski maintain their innocence, saying their wild night at the Holiday Inn on April 26 didn't go down like that at all.

"The reason I am coming forward now is because the things that are being said are not true, and these allegations are ruining my life," David Wielechowski said Monday.

Still sporting a black eye, the 32-year-old dentist held a news conference with his 25-year-old wife in Pittsburgh's Summer Hill neighborhood to give his version of the events that have been widely reported.

David Wielechowski said that he was carrying six-packs of beer and having trouble finding the couple's room in the hotel on McKnight Road. He began arguing with his wife, who he said had also been drinking and was a little tipsy.

According to David Wielechowski, the bride jokingly stuck her rear end out and told him to "kiss my butt," so the new husband gently kicked her in the backside, and she tripped on her wedding dress and fell.

Police told the story differently, saying the husband "used a karate-style kick with his leg to kick Christa, knocking her to the floor," according to the criminal complaint.

But nobody saw the kick, according to Christa Wielechowski, so she has no idea where the "karate" description came from.

"I don't even know karate," David Wielechowski said.

According to the police version, two guests of another wedding came over to restrain David Wielechowski and help the bride, but she began attacking her would-be rescuers.

The fight traveled from a hallway to an elevator then into the hotel lobby where, police said, the couple threw metal planters containing live plants into an elevator at the men who tried to break up the fight.

"It was pretty wild," Ross police Sgt. Dave Syska said.

David Wielechowski denies that part of the story, as well.

He said that, when the other men and women came out of their room and saw the newlyweds, a verbal confrontation began and he got hit with a sucker punch.

"I was telling (a female hotel guest) to mind her business, leave us alone, he's not hurting me at all," said Christa Wielechowski, backing up her husband's story.

David Wielechowski said he "probably" fought back, but couldn't say for sure. He claimed he was being choked and somehow got dragged into the elevator with his new wife.

Police arrived to find the dentist lying on the floor of the lobby and his bride "yelling loudly" and "apparently highly intoxicated," according to the complaint.

Both bride and groom were charged with simple assault, criminal mischief and disorderly conduct. The bride was also charged with public intoxication. She asked a district judge not to require her husband to stay away from her while the charges are pending.

Christa Wielechowski, the former Christa Vattimo, said her husband did not start a fight with her or anyone else that night. She wants to know why charges have not been filed against the other people involved in the case.

"I said (to the police officer), 'I want to make sure these men go to jail for what they did to my husband,'" she said.

She added that if the groom had put his hands on her, she wouldn't still be with him.

"The police officer got there, heard them being loud and made a quick decision that he was going to arrest these people," attorney Mike Worgul said. "It's not uncommon for a police officer to make that decision based on what one or two people tell him ...I'm not suggesting this police officer did anything wrong. He just did what is done every day."

The two newlyweds spent the night in separate holding cells in the Allegheny County Jail. The bride was still wearing her gown when her father picked her up the next morning. The dentist left on his own, with one eye swollen shut, wearing tuxedo pants, a bloody T-shirt and one shoe.

"This is a very unfortunate incident, and I want to apologize to my family, friends and patients for putting myself in a position where this could have happened," David Wielechowski said.

The couple face a preliminary hearing on Wednesday.

They had been married in the Bahamas last month, but repeated their vows for guests at a reception before the hotel fight.


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