A trial of a simple assault charge arising out of an incident at KNUJ-radio station two months ago seemed to end in a draw Monday in county court here.

Don Madison, KNUJ news director, testified KNUJ staff announcer Walt Siegmann hit him several times at 1:27p.m. Friday, April 5 in the KNUJ office area in downtown New Ulm.

Siegmann testified he didn’t hit Madison. Or, if he did, it was accidental while he was brushing hot coffee off his shirt. Siegmann sustained a broken bone in his upper right hand in the incident.

Both men agreed Madison was walking along a short narrow hall area with a photograph in his hand, looking at the photo instead of where he was going. Siegmann was facing Madison, holding a cup of hot coffee in one hand and a magazine in the other.

Madison bumped into Siegmann and the coffee spilled over the two.

From there on, the versions differ.

Madison, 28, testified Siegmann struck him in the head at least three times,knocking his glasses off and causing him to fall down. He said his glasses broke and he got a black eye and a bump on his head but did not go to a doctor. He said Siegmann helped him up and started dragging him towards the office of station manager Perry Galvin.

Madison said the hallway was “pretty dark” while other witnesses said it was light enough to see people standing there. Madison wears thick glasses and said he is near-sighted. He told the Journal he is 5-10 and weighs 145 pounds. Siegmann is 6-2 and weighs 195 pounds, he testified. He does not wear glasses.

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SIEGMANN, 29, testified he saw Madison coming and stepped to the left of the hall area to let Madison pass but Madison was looking at the photo he was holding and veered and crashed into Siegmann.

Siegmann said Madison bumped into his right hand, the coffee cup flew out of his hand and they both had coffee spilled over them. He said he had coffee on his face and down his front.

Siegmann said he never intentionally hit Madison, that Madison never fell to the floor, but “we were both yelling at one another.”

He said he supposed it was possible his hand hit Madison after the coffee spilled when he was brushing the coffee off his shirt or pulling his shirt away from his body.

Siegmann said he had a broken bone between the knuckle and wrist of his right hand which he apparently got when Madison “ran into it.” He said he wore a cast four or five weeks and couldn’t play his trumpet in the Six Fat Dutchrnen band.

He said he never saw any injuries to Madison and he didn’t see how there could have been any.

Siegmann said he may have told Madison they should go see Galvin, that he remembered thinking, “This has to come to a halt.” He said Madison had run into him twice before,once with coffee spilled,another time the morning of the incident in question, April 5. He said in the April 5morning incident he was standing at the end of a short hall in front of a bulletin board having a cigarette and Madison bumped into him.

“If he hadn’t run into me he would have run into the wall,” Siegmann said of the morning incident.

Siegmann said Madison usually wears his glasses when giving newscasts and he had a newscast at 1:30 p.m. April 5 and the time of the incident was 1:27 p.m. or earlier, but as far as he knew Madison wasn’t wearing his glasses when they collided.

Earlier differences between Siegmann and Madison over the employees’ union at KNUJ were mentioned, that Madison didn’t belong to the union, hadn’t paid his union dues.

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STATION MANAGER Perry Galvin testified he came on the scene when he heard scuffling and voices and found Siegmann standing up, Madison in a “‘crouching” position. He said of Madison’s crouching position, “my opinion was he felt it was safer than standing up.”

He said Siegmann didn’t have hold of Madison, that there was no sign of injury on either man, then or a week later when he talked to them. He said he didn’t recall if Madison had his glasses on or not.

Galvin said the physical construction of the hall area would lend itself to people bumping into each other, that it is very narrow and short.

Junita Sprenger, secretary and receptionist at KNUJ, testified she heard the scuffling but didn’t see what happened. When Siegmann and Madison came back towards the lobby where she was working she didn’t see any sign of injury, she said.

Miss Sprenger said she heard Madison say, as he was leaving the building after the incident, “I’m sick of these union people pushing me around.” She said she is a union member.

Judge William Mather, who heard the case against Siegmann without a jury,took the matter under advisement.

New Ulm Daily Journal

June 18, 1974