Delaware County DNC Delegate Charged With Indecent Assault

The stage at the 2016 Democratic National Convention. (Photo: Dan McQuade)

The District Attorney’s office has decided to press charges against a Democratic National Convention delegate from Delaware County who allegedly assaulted a fellow delegate during the DNC in July.

The office initially decided not to take action last month, prompting widespread attention and outrage from the accuser, Gwen Snyder, and others who claimed that the D.A.’s office had been dismissive and that the assault had not been properly investigated.

The delegate, 74-year-old Walter Weeks of Garnet Valley, was charged with second-degree misdemeanor indecent assault after he turned himself in to police around 4 p.m. yesterday.

Snyder claims that Weeks, a fellow delegate for Bernie Sanders, hugged her and “aggressively” licked her breast without consent while the two were at a hotel bar at 2 a.m. on July 27th. Snyder said she filed a police report later that day.

Following an investigation in August, the D.A.’s office initially said it wouldn’t press charges. At the time, a spokesman for the D.A.’s office wouldn’t give a reason for declining to pursue the case. Snyder said an assistant D.A. told her charges were not pressed mainly because Weeks was purportedly drunk during the alleged incident.

The handling of the investigation and an online petition from Snyder prompted the Philadelphia National Organization for Women to write a letter demanding that District Attorney Seth Williams to take action, despite, the organization said, what they saw as his prior lax attitude toward employees involved in the “porngate” scandal.

In a statement released yesterday, the D.A.’s office admitted its initial investigation had been “incomplete” and that the charges relied on “further investigation by the DAO including a review of additional video and eyewitness testimony.”

According to the Inquirer, Weeks’s lawyer, Michael J. Engle, said in a statement that “Mr. Weeks maintains his innocence in the face of this accusation, which was clearly rejected by the Philadelphia police and the District Attorney’s Office. Political and media pressure placed on the D.A. is the sole reason there is any case against Walter Weeks at this time.”

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