1992.12.11 - The Pantagraph/Associated Press - Police charge Rose with endangering lives

Transcription:
-----------------

Police charge Rose with endangering lives

SAO PAULO, Brazil (AP) - Police have charged American rock star Axl Rose of “endangering human lives” for hurling a swivel chair off a mezzanine at a group of people.

No one was hurt in the Wednesday incident, which occurred less than 24 hours after the lead singer of the Guns N’ Roses group arrived in South America’s largest city for two performances.

Conviction on the charges could mean a sentence of up to one year in prison, Barbosa said. Police have 30 days to present their case to a judge.

Police officer Regina Neves Guerra said by phone that Rose’s target was a small group of journalists, fans and guests of the hotel where he is staying.

“While he was playing pool in the hotel’s game room, William Bailey, alias Axl Rose, spotted the crowd in the lobby. He then picked up the chair and hurled it at the group” from a 33-foot-high mezzanine, she said, “and then walked away.”

“Luckily the chair fell to the ground before it reached the crowd. No one was hurt,” she added.

She said the complaint against Rose was filed by journalists from the Jornal do Brasil, O Globo, Folha da Trade and Folha de Sao Paulo newspapers.

Inspector Antonio Carlos Menezes Barbosa said police questioned and formally charged Rose in the hotel.

The Associated Press tried to contact Rose and his spokeswoman, Wendy Laister, but the hotel refused to place the calls through to their rooms.

Last month, a judge in Clayton, Mo., put Rose on probation for two years and ordered him to donate $50,000 to social service organizations for starting a riot at a Guns N’ Roses concert About 80 people were hurt in the July 2, 1991, riot in Maryland Heights, 15 miles from St. Louis.

Associated Press via The Greenville News, December 10, 1992: