The former chair of the Arizona Republican Party, Kelli Ward, is under scrutiny after an accusation of assault at a GOP committee meeting held at Dream City Church in January. Ward allegedly struck a woman with pieces of paper and her fist during the event, according to a police report, as reported by AZFamily. Sources told AZfamily.com, that the woman claimed Ward hit her on the head and shoulder "with both a fist and paper one time" after an exclamation that Ward was "no longer a member."
Surveillance footage from the North Phoenix church location seemed to capture the moment of the incident. The video reportedly showed Ward to have turned around, leaned over a chair, and appeared to quickly tap the woman with paper. "It looked to be a fairly light tap on the video," a portion of the police report stated, details AZfamily.com. Ward, who is also a former state senator, denied hitting the woman with her fist, telling police that she merely replied to verbal harassment by tapping the lady on her shoulder with the paper.
Witnesses at the scene, however, offered a different story. The woman's husband and two additional witnesses confirmed they saw Ward strike the woman. "You’re not the chair, you don’t have privilege," was reportedly yelled at Ward before the incident, which Ward relayed to police. The victim's husband told police that following his wife's comment to Ward, he saw the ex-GOP chair lean in from behind and hit his wife with two pieces of paper and her fist. Another witness, seated behind the victim, corroborated the account further by asserting she saw Ward "hit" the woman with the paper. RawStory highlighted that all parties involved were familiar with one another from previous Republican Party events.
The incident did not result in injury, reported police, and the woman did not complain of potential injuries at the time. Nonetheless, she elected to press charges and authorities have since forwarded the report to city prosecutors to consider possible prosecution of assault charges.
