NEW YORK -- A 29-year-old Manhattan woman who has accused Henry Kissinger's wife of trying to strangle her in a New Jersey airport admitted today that she was not injured in the alleged assault.
Ellen Kaplan, a volunteer worker for the Fusion Energy Foundation, a pro-nuclear power group, said she was 'frightened' when Kissinger's wife, Nancy, allegedly grabbed her by the throat at Newark Airport Feb. 7, but conceded that she had suffered no physical injury.
Dennis Speed, a member of the foundation who said he was advising Miss Kaplan, admitted that the group hoped to use the incident to achieve a political goal of making 'Henry Kissinger a laughing stock.'
Speed and Miss Kaplan, denied that they were members of the ultra-right wing U.S. Labor Party or that the foundation was a front group for the Labor Party.
Lyndon LaRouche Jr., the leader of the U.S. Labor Party, is listed as a member of the foundation's board of directors but foundation officials insisted that the group was an independent organization with no connections with the U.S. Labor Party.
Newark lawyer William Dill entered an innocent plea on Mrs. Kissinger's behalf Wednesday at her arraignment on 'simple assault' charges brought by Ellen Kaplan of New York City.
Municipal Judge Robert Brennan set trial for May 26.
Brennan, who had issued a bench warrant Tuesday when Mrs. Kissinger, 46, failed to appear in court, vacated the warrant after Dill explained his client did not receive notice of the hearing in time.
The summons, he said, was later found in a stack of get-well cards at the Kissinger's Washington, D.C, home.
The Kissingers themselves have made no public comment on the charges.
The charges stem from a Feb. 7 incident at Newark International Airport as the couple waited for a shuttle to Boston, where Kissinger, 58, was scheduled to undergo heart surgery. He is currently recovering from a triple bypass operation.
Mrs. Kaplan, 29, and a companion, Thomas Simpson, were at a table distributing pro-nuclear literature for the Fusion Energy Foundation, a right-wing group founded by 1980 presidential candidate Lyndon La Rouche, when they recognized the couple.
Contacted in Denver where she was helping to organize another chapter of the group, Mrs. Kaplan said she and Simpson decided to ask the Kissingers some questions when they emerged from an airport lounge.
Mrs. Kaplan said Simpson tried to query Kissinger on why he had prolonged the Vietnam War, causing needless deaths, but Kissinger muttered 'Jesus Christ' and walked away with his wife.
Mrs. Kaplan said she followed the Kissingers and asked him: 'Mr. Kissinger, do you sleep with young boys at the Carlyle Hotel?'
At that point, she said, 'Nancy lunged at me and grabbed me by the throat. Then she pushed her face close to mine and said: 'Do you want to get slugged?' I just froze and pulled away and told her: 'You better not try.''
Asked what motivated the question, Mrs. Kaplan replied: 'We've been long-standing opponents of Kissinger. You want to confront the man with how low he is. He doesn't represent what this country stands for. I wanted him to explain what he was doing.'
'Nancy Kissinger's disregard for the simplest laws of the land are dwarfed by Henry's disregard for human life throughout the world,' Mrs. Kaplan said in a statement later released by the group's New York office.
The complaint charged the wife of the Nobel Prize-winner 'caused bodily injury' to Mrs. Kaplan by grabbing her 'by the throat and trying to choke her.'
Dill said he has not yet decided whether the Kissingers will file counter charges.
