Lawyer is found liable for $200K for stabbing man in hotel lobby
Jurors in Minnesota have found a personal injury lawyer liable for $200,000 for stabbing a man with a steak knife in a hotel lobby.
Jurors in Hennepin County found lawyer Michael Riehm liable for $200,000 for attacking Daniel Kerkinni at the W Minneapolis Hotel, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reports. A judge found no liability for the hotel or the bar operating in the hotel.
Riehm was convicted of felony first-degree assault for the attack early on New Year’s Day 2014 and sentenced to supervised probation. He was accused of attacking Kerkinni for a remark he made to Riehm’s wife in the hotel bar. According to the criminal complaint, Riehm’s wife complimented Kerkinni’s fiancée on her looks, and Kerkinni responded that his fiancée “was already taken.”
Kerkinni and Riehm started shoving each other, but the confrontation was broken up by bar security, prosecutors had alleged. Later, as Kerkinni was getting ready to leave, Riehm confronted him in the hotel lobby and stabbed him in the rib cage, puncturing his lung, according to prosecutors.
Kerkinni’s lawyer, David Bolt, told the Star Tribune he will appeal the dismissal of the bar and hotel as defendants. Bolt said the bar manager had initially decided to eject Riehm after the confrontation began, then changed his mind.
Riehm is still licensed as a lawyer, but he faces a possible five-year license suspension, according to the Star Tribune.
