Wire Star Disputes Public Account of Altercation

Actor Wendell Pierce isn't saying much about his arrest over the weekend on battery charges, but he suggests that the version of events depicting him as the aggressor is inaccurate. "I regret that what started as a civil political discussion escalated to the level that it did," he tweeted. "Although what has been reported thus far differs in important respects from what actually occurred, I have confidence that the judicial process will work as it should." Pierce, who starred in The Wire, Treme, and more recently as Clarence Thomas in Confirmation, was charged with simple battery over an altercation with a Bernie Sanders supporter at the Atlanta Loews Hotel.

Police say Pierce—a backer of Hillary Clinton—got into a heated talk at the hotel bar with a woman and her friends, and the argument continued as the women returned to their hotel room. The argument allegedly turned physical outside the room. The woman says Pierce tried to follow them inside, and he struck her in the head and ripped her hoodie as they struggled to keep him out, reports CNN. Pierce, however, tells police that the woman was trying to pull him inside the room, and he was trying to get away from her, reports NBC News. One fallout already: Pierce has pulled out of a commencement speech he was scheduled to give at Rutgers. (More The Wire stories.)