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Jefferson Township attorney details how he was stabbed in home
Nov 21, 2009 (Tribune-Review - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) --
A Fayette County attorney, who is a Frazier School Board member, testified Friday that after he reprimanded an acquaintance for spilling a drink in his home last month, the man stabbed him.
John H. Lowery III, 39, of Jefferson Township, said Samuel F. Clark, 30, of Pittsburgh's East Liberty neighborhood, was one of four men he invited into his home early in the morning on Oct. 23 after they had been drinking at a bar together.
Clark, who remains free on $5,000 unsecured bond, was ordered yesterday by Belle Vernon District Judge Jesse Cramer to stand trial on charges of aggravated assault, simple assault and recklessly endangering another person.
Lowery said the incident occurred about 3 a.m. after Clark spilled a "purple drink" onto work papers on his coffee table and onto the living room floor.
"We had a slight altercation in the living room at that time," Lowery said.
He stated that he said "something along the lines of 'I can't believe you were so stupid,' or 'I asked you to use a coaster.'"
Lowery said he has known Clark for about three years.
"He gets very angry if you talk down to him or talk in a bossy or aggressive tone," Lowery said. "He did not like how I was talking to him."
Lowery said there was some "pushing and shoving."
"I may have hit him with one of the other guys' cell phones," he said. "I don't deny that. ... That's what I've been told happened."
One of the guests, identified in a criminal complaint as William Best Jr., "settled Sam and myself down."
Lowery said he went to the kitchen, telling the group he would make everyone a fresh drink.
"I was aware someone was behind me, but I didn't turn around. All of a sudden I felt a massive blow to my back, on the left side, approximately eight inches above my waistline. At that point, I thought I was punched," Lowery said.
Lowery said he turned around and saw Clark with a knife in his hand.
As he backed up, Clark "lunged forward," Lowery said, and "slashed" him in the lower back and stabbed him in the chest.
"I started yelling, 'He's stabbing me, he's stabbing me,'" Lowery said.
Best came into the kitchen and Lowery ran into the living room.
He said Clark came into the living room and began to gather his things. Lowery said he asked Best to help him evict Clark from his house.
"He (Clark) was saying I was going to call the police," Lowery said. "I believe at that time he picked up my house phone and broke it."
He said Clark then picked up a 6-foot lamp and struck Lowery and Best.
Clark went outside but refused to leave without his cell phone, Lowery said.
After Best brought it to him, Lowery said Clark "got a crazed look on his face and said, 'I won't (expletive) leave' because the knife was in the house and had his fingerprints on it."
"He said, '(You) are a lawyer and I'm not leaving without the knife," Lowery said.
Lowery, who was inside the garage, said he picked up a socket wrench and struck Clark in the head with it.
"I said, 'You are not coming back into my home,'" Lowery said.
Clark threatened to kill him before getting into a car and leaving with Best, Lowery said.
Realizing he was bleeding "profusely," Lowery said he called a friend to take him to the hospital.
From Monongahela Valley Hospital in Carroll, Washington County, Lowery was flown to UPMC Presbyterian hospital in Oakland.
He said the chest wound punctured a lung, and he was hospitalized for a day and a half.
To see more of the Tribune-Review or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/tribunereview/. Copyright (c) 2009,
Tribune-Review, Greensburg, Pa. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information
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