Kansas mayor charged for allegedly pushing reporter

By The Associated Press

01.10.03

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COLUMBUS, Kan. — Mayor William Schaiff was charged with battery Jan. 8 after allegedly shoving a television reporter.

Schaiff was charged with one count of misdemeanor battery after he allegedly pushed Jeanene Kiesling, a reporter with KOAM-TV in Pittsburg. Schaiff is scheduled to appear in Cherokee County District Court Jan. 21.

Kiesling said the incident happened Jan. 7 while she was working on a story on the City Council.

She and a cameraman were filming at City Hall when the mayor asked Kiesling “to get out of his area,” she said.

Later, Kiesling and the cameraman were shooting in a room when the mayor came in and turned off the lights, Kiesling said. She asked Schaiff to turn the lights back on. When he wouldn’t, Kiesling tried to do so herself. That’s when the mayor shoved her, Kiesling said.

“I really don’t know what motivated that behavior, that kind of a response,” Kiesling said. “I was very shocked by it. I certainly wasn’t expecting it.”

Kiesling said she filed a complaint with the sheriff’s office immediately after the incident, The Joplin (Mo.) Globe, reported Jan. 8.

Schaiff did not immediately return a message left at his office by the Associated Press. No one answered the phone at his home.

When contacted by the Globe, Schaiff said his lawyer had directed him not to speak about the incident, the paper reported.

"I'm not allowed to say anything," Schaiff told the Globe. "And you'd better be careful what you write or you might be a party in the lawsuit too."