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Jury sees attack on witness in court

Man lunges at wife after her testimony

Tuesday, January 30, 2001

By MIKE LEWIS
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

As stunned jurors looked on, a Seattle man on trial for the kidnapping and rape of his estranged wife bolted from the defense table yesterday and attacked her just after she testified.

Two court bailiffs and two police officers in court at the time quickly subdued Cesar M. Ponce, 24, who had charged the witness stand and had his hands around his estranged wife's throat. The woman, who was not identified, was treated for minor injuries.

Ponce could face new assault charges stemming from the courtroom incident.

According to a Seattle police officer who helped pin Ponce down after the attack, the man ran at his wife just shortly after noon as Judge Charles Mertel told the court it was time to take a break.

"We were breaking for lunch," Officer Jeff Geoghagan, who said Ponce was not handcuffed while he sat at the defense table. "When he got up, I was right behind him."

Geoghagan said two court security officers and another Seattle police officer quickly jumped on Ponce, who is listed in police reports at 6 feet tall and 200 pounds. One used pepper spray to help subdue the man, whom witnesses described as enraged. "He's a big guy," Geoghagan said.

A security camera captured some of the assault; Seattle police are investigating.

Today, Ponce's defense lawyers are expected to ask for a mistrial because jurors watched the attack.

Ponce is on trial for the kidnapping and rape of his wife, from whom he had been separated for nearly two years.

According to a Seattle Police Department report, Ponce approached his wife as she walked to her vehicle near her Seattle apartment last summer. He forced her into a car with a knife, took her to his house then beat and raped her, the report said. The beating left her with broken teeth and a cut that required stitches.

Ponce had been held in jail in lieu of $250,000 bond.

P-I reporter Sam Skolnik contributed to this report.

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