Mayor Luke Ravenstahl today denied accusations that he was drunk and that he shoved a police officer before an October 2005 Steelers game.
Ravenstahl was responding to accusations made on a blog maintained by former KDKA Radio talk show host John McIntire.
McIntire wrote that Ravenstahl was arrested for pushing a police officer and that former city Operations Director Dennis Regan called police to get Ravenstahl out of trouble.
Ravenstahl said he was in a large line of people at 8:30 p.m. Oct. 31, 2005, in front of Heinz Field when a large line a people he was in surged forward.
“Myself and everybody else that was in the front of the line at that point simply had no control over our bodies or anything. We were being pushed, and it was a very dangerous situation,” Ravenstahl said.
A police officer “charged into the crowd,” Ravenstahl said. He said the officer was very aggressive and “out of control.”
Ravenstahl identified himself to the officer as a city councilman and complained to the officer, Mark A. Hoehn, about how he handled the crowd.
The officer handcuffed and detained Ravenstahl.
The mayor denied being drunk, but he said he had consumed “a few drinks.” He said Regan did not intervene on his behalf because he and Regan did not know each other well at the time.
Ravenstahl said the officer let him go after the two apologized to each other.
The mayor said he was asked months ago about the incident and Regan’s alleged involvement. He said he denied the accusations then because he didn’t want to “lend credence to them.”
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