A man accused of sexually assaulting a teenage girl was punched in the face outside a Las Vegas courtroom, footage of the confrontation showed.
Yousaf Azami, 59, appeared at a preliminary hearing Tuesday on charges of kidnapping, molestation and sexual assault of a teenage girl. KLAS reported.
At some point just before the hearing, Thistle left the courtroom and began walking down the hallway of the Las Vegas Judicial Court, according to footage obtained by the outlet.
According to the video, Glenn Cromwell Jr., who appears to be related to the victim, got up from the bench he was sitting on, followed Thistle down the hallway and confronted him.
According to the video, Cromwell hit Thistle in the face with a sock and hit her on the buttocks so hard that Cromwell hit her in the face with a sock.
Cromwell continued punching and kicking Thistle, and several people, including a police officer, broke up the fight by sprinting towards them.
Cromwell was taken into custody and charged with battery, according to KLAS.
Azami was charged after she reported a teenage boy to the Mirage Hotel on September 3, accusing him of raping her. She said the girl's age was not disclosed in court documents, but she was 14 or 15 at the time of the assault.
The girl told police she was “walking around looking for something to smoke or eat” when she met Azami in the parking lot of a marijuana dispensary. She got in his car and they drove to his apartment.
While at his house, the girl started dozing off when Azami lay down behind her.
“She said she felt his pelvis 'squeaking' against her and he was not wearing anything,” according to court documents.
The girl asked Azami to stop, took a shower, put on the suspect's clothes and fled the apartment.
She spotted a man near the Mirage picking up his wife and told him, “She was kidnapped and raped and we need the police,” according to the documents.
Azami, an actor from Afghanistan, denied having any sexual contact with the boy, police said. She also said she did not know the girl's age.
He was arrested and released on $5,000 bail, KLAS reported. He is scheduled to appear in court again on February 20th.
Mr Cromwell was released on his own recognizance and is scheduled to next appear in court on March 19th.
A disturbance occurred in the same building, with a man jumping over a bench and tackling the judge after the judge refused to grant him a suspended sentence.
