Venezia: Bad blood surfaces with ‘spit and hit’ incident

Sometimes the process of flushing out a column raises more questions than the story itself.

Like when I attempted to find out what really happened between former Costa Mesa City Council candidate Chris McEvoy and former city Planning Commissioner Jim Fitzpatrick at the 68th annual Fish Fry and Carnival the last weekend of May.

I called both men, who are political adversaries, to find out.

McEvoy told me it all started when he refused to sell corn on the cob to Fitzpatrick at a booth he was working at the event hosted by the Costa Mesa-Newport Harbor Lions Club.

Later, they ran into each other during the event at Fairview Park, and let’s just say unpleasant words were exchanged.

McEvoy asserts that Fitzpatrick said something derogatory about his speech impediment, the result of an ongoing medical condition.

McEvoy said that he responded by spitting on Fitzpatrick. And at that point, McEvoy said, Fitzpatrick punched him in the jaw.

“We both got what we deserved,” McEvoy said. “He mocked my disability, and I spit in his face, and he punched me in the face.”

Fitzpatrick sent me a prepared statement.

“I was the victim of unprovoked aggression and profanity in the presence of my children,” Fitzgerald said in the statement. “Chris McEvoy did aggressively approach me and my children, with the bizarre behavior of clapping his hands directly in my face in a prevocational, combative manner, and accompanied by profanity ... all in the presence of my kids.”

Fitzpatrick wrote that his children were scared, and that he did not engage with McEvoy at that time.

“When I approached Chris McEvoy from a distance to tell him please (do) not come near my kids again, he chose to approach my stationary position, go physically toe-to-toe, physically push his chest into mine, and call me a fat (expletive). After a mutual verbal exchange, Chris McEvoy spit in and on my face.”

Fitzpatrick’s statement did not address McEvoy’s assertions that he mocked the speech impediment and then responded to the spitting by slugging him.

I followed up with requests seeking his side of the story on these points and he declined to answer them. His does say in his statement that he filed a police report.

A police spokesman told the Daily Pilot the department could not provide specific details about the incident, but did say that both parties “reported that they had been assaulted by the other person.”

Neither man wanted to press charges, so police are keeping the record only as formal documentation of the incident and aren’t investigating any further, the spokesman said.

For readers not overly familiar with these two men, McEvoy is a vocal critic of many policies Mayor Steve Mensinger and Mayor Pro Tem Jim Righeimer have initiated. Fitzpatrick, on the other hand, supports Mensinger and Righeimer. McEvoy started a recall campaign against Righeimer awhile back but later ended it.

A lot of the bad blood between these two factions plays out in council meetings and on Facebook.

The issue could escalate. Fitzpatrick said in the statement that he plans to seek legal action against McEvoy to “prevent further aggressive acts” ... and “defamation directed at me and my family.”

He did not elaborate on what he meant by defamation and what actions he plans to take.

McEvoy said he told his side of the story to police last week.

Regardless of both men’s statements, this alleged “spit and hit” behavior is just not cool. I wanted to see a copy of the police incident report.

But as I discovered over the next five days and numerous phone calls to the Costa Mesa Police Department, it wasn’t going to be easy.

First I was told the case was being handled by the PSU — Professional Standards unit — which also handles Internal Affairs and anything to do with City Hall.

Then I was told it wasn’t.

Next I was told I had to fill out a public records document request in person — the problem was I was out of town — and no one had told me this when I visited the police department days before.

Ugh!

As my patience wore thin, I was then directed to the city’s website where I could make the request, which I did.

I not only asked for the incident report, but all correspondence between City Hall and the police department regarding the McEvoy-Fitzpatrick incident.

At this point I didn’t know what to make of this runaround.

Was someone reaching in from City Hall to make this discovery more difficult? Assistant CEO Rick Francis told me no.

So am I to believe the cops are this disorganized?

Francis didn’t have an answer.

The whole saga ended with Christina Powell, police records supervisor, telling me since I wasn’t a named party in this case, I couldn’t have the incident report.

What have I learned from this exercise in futility?

I really need to get over my morbid fascination with random acts of ridiculousness in Costa Mesa.