Staple Gun Assault On House Candidate A 'Media Stunt,' Defense Lawyer Says

By Mae Rice in News on Mar 7, 2016 9:47PM

A local politician alleges that two people assaulted him and staple-gunned him in the forehead on Sunday night, but their lawyer says the politician is the one who started the fight.

Robert Zwolinski—a Democrat running for an Illinois house seat in the 4th district, against incumbent Cynthia Soto—described the attack to Chicagoist Monday morning. Defense attorney Frank Avila told Chicagoist his clients have a different take on what happened.

“He started a fight, and I’m not saying he won the fight, but everything that my clients did was in self-defense,” he said. “This is a media stunt. I think that he might have used the staple gun on himself.”

As evidence of foul play, Avila pointed out that Zwolinski did TV appearances on WGN and Fox after the fight, with what looked like untreated wounds.

Avila wondered why Zwolinski wasn’t worried about “internal bleeding” and other medical repercussions potentially invisible to the naked eye.

Zwolinski could not be reached for comment Monday afternoon.

Zwolinski previously alleged that Avila’s clients, both volunteers for the Soto campaign, were hanging Soto posters at his office Sunday. Zwolinski said he saw them while driving by with his girlfriend and decided to get out of his car and ask them to stop.

Avila contests this account, however. His clients—a 26-year-old man and a woman Zwolinski told police was between 24 and 26—were hanging posters up and down Ashland “in a public way that was legal,” Avila said.

Hanging a poster outside a business or home is only legal with the owner’s permission, Avila explained, unless the building is abandoned. However, his clients weren’t hanging posters on Soto’s office; they were postering a couple doors away when Zwolinski approached them. Avila said this is confirmed by blood on the ground from the fight, which Avila alleges is mostly two doors away from Zwolinski’s office.

Avila also pointed to what he sees as another inconsistency in Zwolinski’s story: Zwolinski told police that Avila’s female client struck Zwolinski in the head with a bottle, but no bottles or bottle remnants were found in the street, according to Avila.

“Where’s the bottle?” Avila said. “Where’s the glass from the bottle?... Where are the cuts from the beer bottle?”