Last week a gay campaign worker for the Republican congressional candidate Chad Lee and close friend of GOProud Kyle Wood of Madison, WI claimed he was targeted, physically attacked and strangled because he is a Republican and the fact that he is gay.
But guess what? That’s right. HE LIED!
Wood originally told Christian Schneider at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “All of a sudden, there was something around my neck, so I couldn’t breathe — I mean, I could breathe enough to live, but I couldn’t scream. All I could think about was getting it off my neck.”
Wood, also claimed that Republican congressional candidate Chad Lee’s opponent, openly gay Democrat Rep. Mark Pocan’s partner, Philip Frank sent him threatening emails and painted the attack as a set up by Pocan and Frank for Wood not supporting Pocan because he is also gay.
ANOTHER LIE!
Captain Joe Balles, commander of the South District, confirms that Wood recanted his allegations of the beating and the threatening messages.
Although he would not go into detail about the case, Balles said, “I updated that press release because I felt it was imperative we get something out there because of the politically charged background this was happening in.”
He said that the department will do its “due diligence” and discuss with the district attorney’s office whether any charges will be filed against Wood.
Later this afternoon, the Madison Police Department updated its incident report on the alleged attack to note that it would be cleared as “Unfounded.” It read:
In an interview this afternoon with Madison Police detectives, the victim in this case recanted his earlier statements in regards to this crime. This crime, alleged to have occurred on High Street in the South Police District, will be cleared as “Unfounded” for case reporting purposes. Once follow-up investigation is completed, MPD’s case file will be reviewed with Dane County District Attorney’s Office.
GOProud’s co-founder, Jimmy LaSalvia, tried to use Woods fake assault as a wedge in the LGBT community by sating that Woods “attack” indicates the “hate and vitriol directed towards a gay conservative from gay liberals”
This is the 3rd such incident of a “fake hate crime” to be attached in some way to Jimmy LaSalvia and GOProud over the past year.
Kyle Wood is a General Surgery resident at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health
UPDATE 10/30/2012: It turns out that Kyle Wood is indeed a member of GOProud