Radio host Greg Garrison won't comment on Pence sign brawl

Update

Radio show host Greg Garrison told his listeners Tuesday he couldn't comment on his possible involvement in a fight Downtown more than two weeks ago.

"There have been media reports" about him, Garrison said at the start of his show on WIBC FM 10:07 a.m. "Obviously, I can't comment on it."

"I want to thank you all" for messages of support, Garrison said, before quickly turning his attention to the show's first guest.

Garrison's BMW sport utility vehicle was traced to a fight in Lockerbie Square and the vandalism of a lawn sign reading, "Pence Must Go" on April 18.

Indianapolis police said a resident was punched by a man who sped off in a car that bore the license plates and fit the description of one owned by Garrison. The victim refused to file a formal complaint that could lead to an arrest and Garrison was never identified as the assailant.

Garrison ignored repeated attempts from the Star to comment

The complainant said the brawl started when a man uprooted an anti-Pence sign and tossed it.

Earlier

A brawl on a narrow and dark block in a neighborhood of cobblestone streets was brief but brutal.

The combatants, unlikely.

It pitted a 43-year-old financial adviser against a man who appeared to be in his 60s driving a BMW sport utility vehicle. And at the center of it was a sign critical of Gov. Mike Pence for his support of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.

The financial adviser, a Lockerbie Square resident, told the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department he was sitting on the porch of his gated, two-story townhouse when he noticed a copper, 2013 SUV parked on the street at 10:30 p.m. on Saturday, April 18. The SUV didn't belong to any residents on the 500 block of East Vermont Street and did not have a resident parking pass in the window.

A gray-haired man and woman approached the SUV but before getting in the car, the apparent sexagenarian turned onto a flower bed of a home, uprooted a lawn sign and flung it, according to the police report.

The sign read "Pence Must Go!" Several have been posted in yards in the neighborhood since Pence signed the controversial RFRA bill, widely interpreted as being discriminatory against gays and lesbians.

The financial adviser, from his porch, shouted that the gray-haired man was "disrespecting his neighbor's property," according to the report. He claimed that the man yelled a profanity back at him before getting into the SUV. He told police he went into the street and stood in front of the SUV, to prevent it from leaving, while he called police on a cell phone.

A police report says the driver put the car in motion and tried to "nudge" the Lockerbie resident out of the way, knocking him onto the hood. The driver steered around the resident, who slapped the driver's side window.

"Do you wanna go?" challenged the driver, an apparent invitation to fisticuffs.

According to the report, the alleged vandal got out of the car and "struck (the victim) in the mouth with a closed fist. After the punch he grabbed (his) shirt and ripped it."

The resident got the suspect to the ground and "kicked the suspect in the face and he went back to the ground," the report said. The woman intervened. "Hit me," she yelled to the financial adviser, according to the police report.

The resident said he just wanted the license plate number. His adversaries quickly drove away. He wrote down the plate and called police.

The police traced the plate to a conservative local radio host and blogger who has appeared at events with Pence and Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard; a lawyer and former county prosecutor who sent Mike Tyson to prison for rape in 1992.

Greg Garrison.

The license plate number given to police, at least, was Garrison's. It's possible Garrison let a friend borrow the SUV for the night, police said. But police didn't investigate further because the Lockerbie resident decided against making a formal complaint.

IMPD Lt. Richard Riddle said the resident, who did not recognize the man he had fought, decided against proceeding despite having pictures of his injuries, video surveillance of the fight, and his wife and a friend as witnesses.

That ended the investigation or the need to interview Garrison, who is 67 with gray hair, to establish if he was involved.

Riddle did not know why the Lockerbie resident refused to proceed. It is also unclear whether the detective ever told the complainant if the car belonged to Garrison or showed him a picture.

A neighbor told The Indianapolis Star the complainant just wanted the matter forgotten. The Pence sign is no longer in the yard, the owner saying it had caused enough trouble.

The Star left three messages on the complainants cell phone and visited his home, without receiving a response.

The Star made repeated attempts to contact Garrison to ask him if he was indeed the man in the altercation and to get his side of the story.

Two messages were left at his law office on the Northside of Indianapolis. They were not returned. A reporter also went to the law office and told a paralegal The Star was seeking Garrison's comment for a story about him. The paralegal said she would text Garrison the information, but she would not give The Star his cell phone number.

The Star also went to Garrison's Fishers home — where a sign on the door warns would-be thieves that there really is nothing inside worth being shot over — and knocked on the door three times. There was no answer.

Garrison's notoriety as the Tyson prosecutor in 1992 for the rape of Desiree Washington propelled the Cowboy-boot wearing conservative to jobs as a legal analyst for CBS News and his own local talk show on WIBC. Garrison often appears at public memorials for veterans and speaks at political rallies.

Call Star reporter John Tuohy at (317) 444-6418. Follow him on Twitter: @john_tuohy.