White male who got charged after slapping black male in face, getting severely beaten in Cincinnati mob attack enters plea
A white male who slapped a black male in the face and then got severely beaten in Cincinnati's infamous mob attack late last month was charged with disorderly conduct, a fourth-degree misdemeanor.
The arraignment for Alex Tchervinski took place Tuesday, WLWT-TV reported.
'He was not only brutally beaten and robbed during the assault; he's now being prosecuted when he was attempting to defend himself and his friends.'
Tchervinski, 45, didn't appear in Hamilton County Municipal Court, but his attorney Douglas Brannon entered a not-guilty plea on his behalf, the Cincinnati Enquirer reported.
Brannon said his client acted in self-defense, WLWT noted.
A cellphone video shows a white male and several black males squaring off before the mob attack begins. The video shows light physical contact between the white male and two black males, while others of both races appear to try to break things up. Then amid verbal sparring, the white male lightly slaps the face of a black male — and then the mob attack commences.
The above video and a second clip show the mob repeatedly stomping, kicking, and punching the white male while he's lying in the street.
Tchervinski has been identified as one of the six victims in the mob attack.
WLWT said it remains unclear whether the slap led to Tchervinski's misdemeanor charge.
"I am not aware of what basis they made the disorderly conduct charge," Brannon said, according to the station. "It's not been explained to me by any prosecutor or any filing made by the prosecutor. So I'm very interested to learn from them why they felt it necessary to bring this charge under these circumstances."
Brannon also said Tchervinski was acting in self-defense and should not be charged, according to WLWT. "Alex himself sustained over 28 blows to his head, face area. He was brutally beaten in this instance. I think he is being victimized now for a second time. He was not only brutally beaten and robbed during the assault; he's now being prosecuted when he was attempting to defend himself and his friends."
However, leaders in the black community — including state Rep. Cecil Thomas (D-Cincinnati) — have been saying a disorderly conduct charge isn't enough, the station reported.
"An assault is an assault. When you put your hands on someone and use force, you have assaulted that individual, and that was an assault," Thomas told WLWT. "Disorderly conduct is a slap in my face."
Both sides are agreeing on one thing, however — that city leaders aren't being transparent, the station said.
Case in point: The city solicitor prosecuting Tchervinski's case is trying to seal the citation, WLWT reported.
"I can't explain why the city brings a charge and wants to try and conceal it at the same time," Brannon noted, according to the station. "I think this is something that needs to be aired to the public. The public needs to see what's going on and how wrong this prosecution is."
In addition, not all videos of the incident have been made public, WLWT reported.
"It's mind-boggling for us to have to get drips of this as we go along. The city should be just as transparent as everybody else involved," Thomas added to the station. "We need to move from this, and the only way we can is we need to allow the people to understand exactly what happened here, and then we begin a process of healing. We can't do that with this drip faucet of information coming out."
Prior to the charge against Tchervinski, seven others — all of them black — were charged in connection with the mob attack. Six of of the seven have been indicted on eight charges each: three counts of felonious assault, three counts of assault, and two counts of aggravated riot. Those six face nearly 30 years in jail if convicted on all charges.
A black male seen on a third cellphone video standing next to the face-slap victim appears to be the first individual to physically retaliate against the white male. As it happens, police are looking for another mob attack suspect, and the image cops released of this suspect appears to match the appearance of the male seen retaliating on video.
Chief Assistant Hamilton County Prosecutor Kip Guinan addressed the face slap, saying that it came after someone else was already beaten, not before, WXIX reported. Guinan also acknowledged that racial slurs are audible on some of the videos of the mob attack — however, he said the slurs were uttered "a minute and 47 seconds into the brutal beatdown," the station reported.
"Were there words said? Yes. Were they inappropriate? Absolutely," Guinan also noted, WXIX reported, before adding that "these poor people were being assaulted, stomped WWE-style, elbow-drops onto pavement. One woman was knocked out to the point her head hit the pavement. We could be here on a homicide."
That woman — who has come to be known as Holly — is seen on cellphone video (1:34 mark) apparently trying to intervene on behalf of a beaten-up man, but instead another female punches her from behind — and seconds later, a male punches her in the face, knocking her flat on her back on the street.
Republican U.S. Sen. Bernie Moreno of Ohio shared on X grisly images of Holly's face days after the mob attack.
"This is Holly," Moreno wrote in his post. "She wanted to have a nice evening out with friends. Instead, she got this."
The male accused of punching Holly has been identified as 38-year-old Patrick Rosemond. Prosecutors said that in addition to knocking out and nearly killing Holly, Rosemond “assaulted each and every single victim in brutal and vicious fashion," WXIX-TV reported earlier this month.
Rosemond is seen on video dancing, high-fiving spectators, and taunting victims following the “violent attack,” the prosecution added, according to WXIX. The prosecution added that Rosemond also has prior convictions — including 10 misdemeanors and three felonies, the station said. His bond was set at $500,000.
One of the more vocal advocates for the arrested black suspects has been Pastor Damon Lynch, and he recently stated that Holly wouldn't have gotten punched had the slap not occurred, WXIX noted in another recent story.
“We do not feel the violence was proportionate to the slap. We are not saying that,” Lynch stated, according to the station. “We’re saying if [the white man] had not slapped this black man in the face, Holly would not have gotten punched out, and the night would have ended.”
BlazeTV host Jason Whitlock has been commenting on the mob beatdown since it all unfolded late last month, and one of his recent video takes included Lynch altering the lyrics of a Jim Croce song for his own purposes as he spoke to a crowd at a church: "You don't tug on Superman's cape, you don't spit in the wind, you don't pull the mask off the ol' Lone Ranger, and you don't slap a black man in the face."
RELATED: 2 female suspects jailed over Cincinnati mob attack get big breaks from judge
Whitlock didn't take kindly to Lynch's words.
"Why is he racializing this? It's disrespectful to slap anyone, regardless of color, in the face. Is he saying ... if a black person slaps a black person in the face, it's OK? If a black gang member shoots a black man in the face, it's OK? If a black gang member accidentally shoots some young black child, it's OK?" Whitlock stated. "But everybody knows that you don't slap a black man in the face, I guess, unless you're black. He's in a church talking about common street thugs — and I'll include the white guy in that, because he ... seemed to be trying to fight with someone. ... [The reverend is] justifying to the people in that audience and other black people in Cincinnati that if you get slapped in the face by a white person, a gang of you all should jump on that man and beat up the woman. This is inside of a church! This is insanity; this is lack of humility."
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(L to R) Dekyra Vernon, Aisha Devaughn. Image source: Hamilton County (Ohio) Sheriff
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