Tucson Region

Guilty plea in case of pies thrown at columnist

One of two men accused of throwing cream pies at nationally syndicated columnist Ann Coulter last year pleaded guilty to misdemeanor assault Friday. Phillip Edgar Smith agreed to pay $915 in restitution for damage caused to a backdrop screen that was hit by one of the pies, said deputy Pima County Attorney Noah Van Amburg. Judge Paul Simon gave Smith a $250 fine, but told him that if he pays the restitution by Dec. 5 he will suspend the fine, Van Amburg said. According to police, Smith and William Zachary Wolff, both 25, threw the tofu cream pies at Coulter as she spoke before a crowd of 2,500 people at the University of Arizona's Centennial Hall on Oct. 22, 2004. They missed Coulter, but splattered a black muslin backdrop. In exchange for Smith's guilty plea, Van Amburg said disorderly conduct and criminal damage charges against him were dismissed. Smith said Friday afternoon he decided to plead guilty just to get the case over with. "I'm sure the court didn't want to go through the hassle, and neither did I, for what amounted to just a prank," Smith said. The original charges against the pair were dismissed on March 18 after neither the arresting officer nor Coulter appeared to testify against them. Both Coulter and a UA police spokesman said the Pima County Attorney's Office failed to properly notify them of the trial. The case was refiled in April. Attempts to reach Coulter on Friday through her publisher, Universal Press Syndicate, by phone and e-mail, were unsuccessful. A spokeswoman for Universal Press Syndicate said an auto response from Coulter's e-mail says she is unable to receive messages until Nov. 15. A change-of-plea hearing is scheduled in Wolff's case for Nov. 30.