Marriage mayhem: Fists fly at wedding

PITTSBURGH (AP) - April 28, 2008

The fight happened hours after the couple repeated their vows and were headed to a room at a suburban Pittsburgh hotel.

Police say the fight between dentist David W. Wielechowksi, 32, of Shaler, and his bride, Christa Vattimo, 25, began as the couple were about to enter their seventh-floor room at the Holiday Inn in Ross Township just north of the city on Saturday night.

The dentist "used a karate-style kick with his leg to kick Christa, knocking her to the floor," the criminal complaint said.

Two guests of another wedding heard the bride's screams and rushed over to help her. But when they restrained Wielechowksi, his bride began attacking her rescuers, police said.

The fight traveled from a hallway to an elevator then into the hotel lobby where, police said, the couple threw metal planters containing live plants into an elevator at the men who tried to break up the fight.

"It was pretty wild," Ross police Sgt. Dave Syska said.

Police arrived to find the dentist lying on the floor of the lobby and his bride "yelling loudly" and "apparently highly intoxicated."

Both bride and groom were charged with simple assault, criminal mischief and disorderly conduct. The bride was also charged with public intoxication. She asked a district judge not to require her husband to stay away from her while the charges were pending.

Both refused comment when they left Allegheny County arraignment court Sunday after spending the night in separate holding cells.

The bride, still wearing her wedding gown, was picked up by her father. The dentist left on his own, one eye swollen shut, wearing tuxedo pants, a bloody T-shirt and one shoe.

The couple face a preliminary hearing May 7.

The couple had been married in the Bahamas last month, but repeated their vows Saturday before a reception for 150 guests.

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