Maricopa County is charging a pair of Turning Point USA (TPUSA) employees for a conflict involving queer Arizona State University (ASU) professor David Boyles, despite a video showing Boyles apparently initiating the incident.
Maricopa County is charging both Braden Robert Ellis and Kalen Christian D’Almeida with harassment, according to court documents. D’Almeida is also being charged with assault and disorderly conduct, per the documents.
The charges stem from an October incident in which Ellis and D’Almeida confronted Boyles over his support for drag queen story hour. Surveillance footage appeared to show Boyles lunging first during the exchange. D’Almeida then shoved him away, at which point Boyles falls to the ground before recovering. (RELATED: Turning Point USA Feud With Arizona State Escalates After Queer Professor ‘Attacked’ Cameraman)
Ellis and D’Almeida are set to be arraigned Jan 2., per Maricopa County Court documents.
“Kalen and his cameraman did absolutely nothing wrong. We will vigorously defend them and look forward to taking this matter into a courtroom where the very clear video evidence documenting what actually happened will quickly prevail over ASU’s gaslighting and the media’s propaganda. Our team members will be vindicated,” TPUSA spokesman Andrew Kolvet told the Daily Caller.
ASU President Michael Crow was silent last week as pro-Hamas “protestors” denigrated Jewish students on campus, but he worked over the weekend and sent an official email smearing TPUSA after “queer” ASU professor David Boyles attacked our cameraman.
Here’s the video evidence,… pic.twitter.com/Bc3q9vrY19
— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) October 16, 2023
TPUSA founder Charlie Kirk tweeted out the video writing, “Professor Boyles attacked our crew first, and our reporter, Kalen D’Almeida, pushed him off to protect his cameraman. Violence is never okay and just because Professor Boyles happens to be gay (or whatever) doesn’t give him the right to attack people because he doesn’t like the questions they’re asking.”
ASU PD spokesman Adam Wolfe said at the time that Boyles “was assaulted in the Fulton Garage on Tempe campus Wednesday afternoon,” according to the State Press.
“It is astounding to me that individuals from Turning Point USA would wait for an ASU instructor to come out of his class to follow him, harass him and ultimately shove him to the ground, bloodying his face. Cowards that they are and so confident in the legality and appropriateness of their actions, the Turning Point USA ‘reporter’ and ‘cameraman”’ then ran away from the scene before police arrived,” ASU President Michael Crow said in an Oct. 14 statement.
James Lynch contributed to this report.