CODY, WY—Police were summoned yesterday morning to the medical offices of Dr. Melvin Stanhope and Dr. Kevin McCarthy in this city because of a brawl which broke out in the office waiting room between patients waiting to see the doctors. Three of those involved were arrested and booked for disorderly conduct, assault and battery, and damage to property.
According to witnesses, the brawl began when Karl Dappner, 58, asked the receptionist to turn off the television in the waiting room, since no one seemed to be watching it, and there was no remote available to patients.
The receptionist, Anne Buehler, 29, said that it was office policy to keep the set turned on for the entertainment of those waiting. Dappner said he objected to the intrusion, especially when no one was even watching it.
Dappner pulled over an empty chair to the TV and climbed up on it to turn off the set on the set's controls, but there were none. Frustrated, Dappner got down on his hands and knees and pulled the set's power cord from the socket.
At this point, another patient, Fred Bickerstaff, 52, hollered at Dappner, "Hey, buddy, what the h*ll you doin'?" "I'm turning off the d*mned TV!" shouted Dappner angrily. "It was the Fox News channel, and we was watchin' it!" said Bickerstaff.
"Oh, you're the kind of person who watches that crap?" hollered Dappner. "No wonder you need to see a doctor, but there aren't no doctors here for crazies!" Bickerstaff got down on the floor and plugged the cord back in.
At this point, after Bickerstaff got up, Dappner pulled out his pocket knife and got back on the floor, apparently intending to cut the plug from the cord. He was almost finished when Bickerstaff asked him what he was doing and got down on the floor beside him.
At this point Bickerstaff's wife Helen, who was waiting with her husband, screamed, "Look out, Fred! He's got a knife!" and began pounding on Dappner's head with a rolled up "People" magazine, and swinging her purse at him with the other hand. The purse contained, among other things, her .45 Colt revolver, for which she has a concealed carry permit. The weight of the pistol broke skin on Dappner's face, resulting in Dr. Stanhope taking him out of turn in order to sew four stitches in him.
The receptionist reminded those who were being taken to the station house that they would be charged for being unable to keep their appointments and not giving 24 hours' notice.
Dr. McCarthy has not yet had the time to repair the cord on the television set.