Mike Edmonson follow up - Bourbon Street brawl

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A man arrested after engaging in a Bourbon Street brawl with former State Police Superintendent Mike Edmonson on Lundi Gras and seriously injuring one of Edmonson’s companions vigorously defended himself through his attorney at a court appearance Friday.

Robert Harris Jr., a Hurricane Katrina evacuee who now lives in Houston, returned to his hometown to answer to a felony charge of second-degree battery in which he is accused of throwing a punch that landed Texas attorney Stuart Yoes in the hospital with a brain injury. Harris’ attorney, retired 4th Circuit Court of Appeal Judge Charles R. Jones, said the altercation happened after a member of Edmonson’s group placed an offensive sticker on the breast of a woman who was with Harris. He said the action amounted to “battery.” According to Yoes, Edmonson has gotten together with the same group of friends in the French Quarter on Lundi Gras for several years, handing out beads and stickers that match the cat costumes worn by some female members of the group. The stickers say “Krewe of P****,” which Yoes said is meant as a humorous double-entendre.

When Harris took offense at the sticker being placed on his friend, Allen and Yoes say Edmonson stepped in as a peacemaker. They said they believed the former top cop had successfully defused the argument when Harris threw the punch. But Jones offered a less benign version of what happened. “He (Harris) and his family were victims of a group of men who precipitated the incident,” Jones said. “If you put a sticker on a woman’s breast, that’s battery. Just wait until these women take the witness stand and you’ll hear what really happened.” After Yoes was punched, both sides acknowledge that others joined in the scuffle, leaving Edmonson bruised and bleeding from a scratch near his eye. Jones said it is unfortunate that Yoes suffered a serious injury, but “you didn’t hear about our injuries. One of these women got bitten on the hand.” “There are two sides to every story,” Jones said in an interview after the brief appearance in magistrate court. “This is a civil rights case. A group of white guys get into an altercation with one black guy and the black guy gets arrested? That right there is suspicious.” When told about Jones’ version by phone Friday, Yoes said, “That’s B.S. He’s grasping at straws for anything he can find.” “First of all, there was no actual argument,” he said. “We were trying to apologize if anyone was offended and we were walking away. Edmonson talked him down three times. We thought it was over. So why was he following us?” Yoes said he is still suffering from nerve damage and some facial paralysis. He said he is being treated by a neurologist. District Attorney Leon Cannizzaro's office said Friday it has formally accepted the felony battery charge against Harris and added a second charge of simple battery, a misdemeanor. Despite the new count, Harris was granted permission by Magistrate Judge Harry Cantrell to leave the jurisdiction and return home under his original $4,500 bond, denying a prosecution motion to increase bail.

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