HARRISBURG -- Trooper Wes Vanwyk, who has worked with horses for 16 years, was called to the Capitol with several other members of the Pennsylvania State Police's mounted unit last month.

As he waded through the crowd on his horse, Sampson, during the "March Against Sharia," 30 or 40 members of a nearby counter-protest rushed out of their designated area, filling up the streets, he testified today.

Following orders from command, he and the other mounted units started pushing the protesters back to the sidewalk. Most were complying, he said.

But there was one who stuck out.

"As I looked down from the horse, I saw someone dressed all in black," he testified.

Black hoodie, black mask and black goggles, carrying a 3-foot stick with a black flag. And sticking out of that flagpole, he said, was 1-inch nail.

What happened next was the subject of a hearing today before Magisterial District Judge Sonya M. McKnight. Did the protester hit Sampson with the nail-end of that flagpole, or was the protester acting defensively against the horse?

McKnight found there was enough evidence against the protester - Lisa Joy Simon - to move all charges on to Dauphin County Court.

Simon, 23, of Philadelphia, is set for formal arraignment Sept. 1 on charges of aggravated assault to police, trauma to police animals, prohibited offensive weapons, obstruction to law enforcement function, resisting arrest and disorderly conduct.

Investigators say Simon is with the AntiFA group, which was protesting the "March Against Sharia" June 10 at the state Capitol in Harrisburg.

At today's preliminary hearing, Vanwyk testified he was directing the crowd back to the sidewalk when his horse's shoulder bumped into the masked Simon.

Simon looked up at him, swung the flagpole, and hit Sampson in the neck, he said.

"My horse pulled his head to the left in a violent fashion," he recalled.

He later checked his horse for injuries, and though he did not find any blood or a puncture wound, he knew from working with horses for nearly two decades that Sampson's reaction came from getting struck with the nail.

Jostled in his saddle, Vanwyk reached down and grabbed Simon by the backpack handle, but the crowd started dragging Simon away. The trooper kept his eye on the black-cloaked figure and said he motioned for a Harrisburg police officer to arrest Simon.

Several officers did and removed the hood and mask, allowing Vanwyk to identify Simon.

But did Simon really attack the horse? And was that flagpole really a weapon?

That's what Simon's attorney, Mary Welch, argued. As the trooper was using his horse to push back the crowd and ran into Simon "It is as likely she was protecting herself," Welch argued.

Additionally, a flagpole does not fit the legal definition of a weapon, and Simon's actions were merely "one swipe of a flag," and not an assault on the trooper, she said.

But Assistant District Attorney Kayla Bolan countered that the flagpole was indeed a weapon when used in such a manner, adding Simon intended to injure the trooper, who could have easily been thrown from the horse.

The judge agreed there was enough evidence to support the prosecution's argument and bound the charges over to county court.

Simon did not wish to comment after today's hearing.