TRUTH ALERT: Attorney General’s complaint attacks college arrest challenger

COLUMBIA, Missouri (KMIZ)

An attack ad from a political action committee supporting Attorney General Andrew Bailey points to his challenger’s arrest while in college.

The Liberty & Justice PAC ad shows the two candidates, Bailey and attorney Will Scharf, side by side in December 2007. While Bailey was stationed in Iraq with the U.S. Army, Scharf was charged in a fight at a party in Princeton, New Jersey, but prosecutors dropped those charges.

AD: “December 1, 2007, Iraq. A battalion of American tanks patrols these streets, protecting our freedom abroad. Their leader? Andrew Bailey.”

Bailey served in the 1st Squadron of the Army’s 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment. Bailey’s campaign team said the attorney general was stationed in Quyyarah West, south of Mosul.

AD: “Same day, Princeton campus, Charter Club. Will Scharf is accused of selling alcohol to underage girls.”

The Charter Club is an Ivy League university clubhouse that hosts social events for various student and alumni groups. The attack stems from a 2007 incident at the facility in which two girls allegedly got into a fight, the Daily Princetonian reports.

Scharf was charged because he was president of the so-called “Eating Club” that hosted the event that evening. The public prosecutor accused him of serving alcohol to minors and disturbing public order.

But Scharf’s attorney, Rocco Cipparone, told ABC 17 News that Scharf was never present at the Charter Club that night. Cipparone said law enforcement will often begin a case by charging a person and then replacing them with the club in exchange for an admission of guilt.

“In my view, Mr. Scharf deserves credit for rejecting the ‘easy way out’ – with my concurring advice – and adhering to the principles that the charges against him should be dismissed unconditionally and without an agreement to replace the institutional defendant because there was no evidence that Mr. Scharf had committed a crime and, in our joint assessment, the charges against him certainly could not be proven beyond a reasonable doubt,” Cipparone said.

AD: “Andrew Bailey served his country with honor. Will Scharf threatened to sue the police who charged him.”

The attack is based on the fallout from that criminal case. The district attorney’s office has dropped the case against Scharf. The Daily Princetonian reported that Scharf notified Princeton County of a possible malicious prosecution lawsuit.

Cipparone said he doesn’t believe Scharf ever followed through with the lawsuit, but feels Scharf may have had standing.

“To the extent that there was any indication that Mr. Scharf would consider a civil suit against the police or the municipality if acquitted, I believe that was a reasonable consideration given the above-mentioned pattern and practice of civil rights violations and what I consider to be the untenable charges against Mr. Scharf,” Cipparone told ABC 17 News.

The two will face each other in the Republican primary on August 6.