Saying he wants bygones to be bygones if things would return to normal, local businessman Mike Hale said he doesn’t care if the man who stabbed him in the VFW parking lot last year goes to jail. He just wants his life back.
“This whole thing has got out of hand. It’s turned into a circus,” said Hale, noting he can’t sit down to eat in a restaurant without someone asking him about the incident. “I just want to go back to being Mike Hale, the plumber.”
Hale’s comments came Wednesday morning, minutes after Circuit Court Judge Bart Stanley declared District Attorney General Lisa Zavogiannis’ office would remain as prosecutors in the case of Mr. Hale’s wife, Brooke Hale.
Her defense had maintained prosecutors were trying to pressure Mr. Hale into perjuring him-self by making him testify Brooke Hale was involved in the knife attack. Judge Stanley said the claims did not rise to the point where he would remove local prosecutors from the case.
“They are more worried about convicting Brooke for something she didn’t do than hearing the truth,” Hale said following the hearing. “I’ve tried to tell them over and over, but they don’t care.”
Brooke Hale and local businessman Jack Redmon are both charged with attempted murder for allegedly attacking Mr. Hale in front of the VFW last summer. Hale suffered stab wounds to the chest and midsection.
Prosecutors maintain Mr. Hale told them Redmon arrived with Mrs. Hale on a motorcycle and Redmon stabbed him while Mrs. Hale swung a helmet at him. Prosecutors contend Mr. Hale told them he was then chased around the building before he was able to seek refuge inside.
“It didn’t happen that way,” Hale said in his interview immediately following the hearing. “I was under the influence of pain killers when they talked to me the first time so I can’t recall what I said but I know Brooke wasn’t part of this. She actually sent texts trying to get people to come get me out of the bar before Jack got there. There’s evidence that proves that but they (prosecutors) won’t ever let that come out.”
Hale said he isn’t afraid of prosecutors threatening to put him in jail for perjury. He says he is telling the truth.
“How about getting them (prosecutors) for trying to make me perjure myself?” Hale asked, noting he filed a complaint with the board of professional responsibility but got no help. “That’s like telling the Mafia that one of their guys come over and beat me up. They just called the district attor-ney’s office and told them I’d reported them and that made them even madder at me.”
Hale said he is willing to see the case dropped if that is what it takes to let him live his life in peace.
“Give him the minimum,” Hale said regarding the man who stabbed him. “He was seeing my wife and I was seeing his girlfriend and tempers got out of hand.”
Hale said he does, in fact, want to get back together with his wife but said that has nothing to do with his recollection of events the day of his stabbing.
“Being Christian is all about reconciliation,” Hale said. “I want to reconcile with my wife but they won’t let me.”
Hale went on to reveal the case has gotten personal, claiming the district attorney herself made a comment he did not feel was appropriate.
“She asked me why I wanted to be with Brooke when she was going to jail,” Hale said of his conversation with Zavogiannis following one of the earlier hearings. “She asked me why I didn’t just go out and get me a sugar momma.”
With the judge ruling Zavogiannis will stay on the case, Brooke Hale is set for trial this summer. Redmon will stand trial afterwards. Both are free on bond pending their trials.