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14

Wife of Ventura man charged with assault and hate crime testifies about incident

14-07-2011

Tagged Under : Hate Crime, Incident

The wife of a defendant accused of assault and a hate crime testified Friday that people in a large group leaving the restaurant where the incident occurred were aggressive and belligerent toward her husband and their friends.

Ashley Klopp, the wife of Nicholas Klopp, who is on trial in Ventura County Superior Court, said the incident on Dec. 18, 2010 was triggered after a misunderstanding on the patio of O-Sabi Japanese Restaurant in Ventura.

Nicholas Klopp is charged with felony assault and two misdemeanor crimes of battery and committing a hate crime. Prosecutors charge he threw a glass at Brian Schumacher and punched Aaron Argueta, who were attending a friend’s birthday party at the restaurant.

The Klopps along with a friend were attending a Christmas party held by the employers of Nicholas Klopp, his wife testified. She said they went there with a friend and met Roy Miller, a co-worker of her husband’s. Miller was with his wife, she said.

She described the place as being very busy and that she and her husband had several drinks. She said her husband got sick but was still drinking.

After the Christmas party ended, Ashley Klopp testified that she and her husband, their friend, and Miller and his wife moved to the patio.

On the patio, Ashley Klopp said her drunk husband got sick and threw up in the restaurant’s pond. Miller joked and told him that he thought he was supposed to swallow his food, and then used a derogatory, sexually oriented word.

Ashley Klopp said her husband flashed Miller an offensive hand gesture and continued throwing up.

She said two people who were on the patio left. Later, she said David Calvert showed up “acting like crazy” and accusing them of making sexually offensive remarks against his son, Adam Calvert, who was having a birthday party at the restaurant.

David Calvert then left, Ashley Klopp said, adding that he was drunk

“I thought he was going to hit someone,” Ashley Klopp said.

Court testimony showed the birthday party was attended by a large group of people who accused Nicholas Klopp of yelling derogatory, sexually oriented words and a racial slur. Prosecution witnesses identified Klopp as the person who threw a drinking glass at Schumacher and punched Argueta outside the restaurant.

Ashley Klopp testified the couple decided to leave and on the way out someone from the birthday party group, who she did not identify, pushed her husband, called him a bigot and cursed at him. She said this man “chest bumped” her husband and threatened to physically harm him.

She said she feared they were going to beat up her husband.

She said she called Miller to help defuse the situation, but a tall man with the other group stepped in and told everybody to shut up and go home.

Ashley Klopp testified that the six white supremacist shirts in the couple’s closet seized by police during the execution of a search warrant at their Ventura home belonged to her brother who died almost two years ago.

“I kept them,” she said crying.

She denied that she or her husband subscribe to white supremacist beliefs, saying she is good friends with a fellow medical assistant student who is black. She said “all my nieces and nephews” are of mixed races. She said two of the children always come to the couple’s home and play with her two young children.

Ashley said her husband’s “half-done” white supremacist tattoos on his chest were put on there five or six year ago and he never wanted to finish them. She said she got a tattoo of a swastika when she was 16 and “stupid.” She paid $400 a year ago to have another tattoo that states “True Love Never Dies” superimposed on the swastika.

“Is that tattoo consistent with your feelings as you sit here today,” defense attorney Jean Farley asked her.

“Yes,” she replied.

Ashley Klopp will continue her testimony and be cross-examined on Monday.

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