McKinney Says Officer Started Scuffle; Police Consider Charges

Flanked by dozens of supporters and two Hollywood stars, Rep. Cynthia McKinney said yesterday that the altercation between her and a U.S. Capitol Police officer was instigated when she was inappropriately touched and stopped.

Capitol Police plan to meet next week to discuss possibly filing charges against the six-term Georgia representative, who scuffled with the officer in the incident .

The unidentified officer wants to press assault charges against McKinney, who allegedly poked him with her cellphone Wednesday morning as she tried to bypass a metal detector while walking into a House office building, said Capitol Police sources familiar with the incident. Members of Congress are not required to pass through such magnetometers.

But the officer failed to recognize McKinney, a Democrat, who was not wearing a lapel pin given to members of Congress to help identify them. He tried to grab her as she walked past him, police said. McKinney was eventually allowed to proceed to a meeting.

McKinney, speaking at a news conference at Howard University attended by singer and actor Harry Belafonte and actor Danny Glover, acknowledged that she may be charged in the case and vowed that she would be exonerated.

"This whole incident was instigated by the inappropriate touching and stopping of me -- a female, black congresswoman," she said, reading from a statement, as supporters held up signs, including one that read, "Is Cynthia a Target?" McKinney added, "I deeply regret that this incident occurred."

James Myart, the congresswoman's attorney, said he may seek to press assault charges against the officer, or file a civil suit, and said McKinney was the victim of racial profiling, "like thousands of young black men and women."

"Ms. McKinney is just a victim of being in Congress while black," Myart said in a written statement.

Asked to respond to McKinney's charges, Capitol Police spokeswoman Sgt. Kimberly Schneider declined to comment, noting that the case is under investigation.

Belafonte and Glover said they supported the congresswoman but said they didn't have firsthand knowledge of the incident.

Glover's remarks appeared to contradict a statement that was handed out by McKinney's aides, in which he was quoted as saying she was "inappropriately touched."

Officers are expected to meet with prosecutors next week to discuss the likelihood of filing charges against McKinney, said police sources, who requested anonymity because they cannot speak about ongoing investigations. Channing Phillips, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office in Washington, declined to comment on the investigation.

Andrew Maybo, chairman of the Capitol Police Labor Committee for the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 1, said the officer "acted professionally. We are giving him our full support."

McKinney staff members said she had not been recognized at least once before as a member of Congress.

Her office released a video from a documentary that shows a white officer demanding identification from her as she entered the Capitol grounds with a film crew upon her return to Congress in 2005. She had lost a reelection bid in 2002.

Staff writer Henri E. Cauvin contributed to this report.