Charleston attorney accused of slapping man on E. Battery over stopped garbage truck granted bond (2024)

A former state lawmaker and practicing attorney was arrested May 30 for allegedly slapping a man trying to calm him down after a confrontation with a Trash Gurl truck driver, according to Charleston police.

Charleston police officers took John Kuhn, 61, into custody on the minor charge of simple assault just after 9 a.m. as he was leaving his Water Street home located on the peninsula South of Broad, said Sgt. Chris Stinson.

Kuhn was granted a $1,087 personal recognizance bond the evening of May 30 in Charleston County Bond Court.

Kuhn appeared via video in court before Magistrate Judge Alvin Bligen. The magistrate ordered Kuhn to receive counseling as part of his bond.

Peter McCoy, Kuhn’s attorney and friend, declined to comment. He said in court that he and Kuhn’s family want him to seek help.

“He wants to go to counseling,” McCoy said of Kuhn to the judge.

Kuhn is accused of committing the assault on May 21 when he allegedly struck a construction worker with an open hand on East Battery Street.

On May 21 around 11 a.m., an employee of Richard Mark Restoration working at 13 E. Battery St. was watching a Trash Gurl semitruck swap out dumpsters at the worksite, according to a police report. The truck was positioned to turn left onto East Battery Street from the residence and temporarily blocked part of the narrow street on the eastern tip of the peninsula.

The employee reported Kuhn exited his white 2022 Range Rover behind the Trash Gurl truck and walked up to the truck. Kuhn began yelling at the Trash Gurl driver, who then exited the truck, according to an incident report.

The home restoration employee said he watched Kuhn and the Trash Gurl driver argue as traffic built up on East Battery Street, according to the incident report. The employee said he approached Kuhn and asked, “Can you please move your vehicle and let this guy out, you are holding up traffic,” according to the police report.

A verbal argument ensued that culminated in Kuhn slapping the man and knocking the sunglasses off his face, according to the police report. The employee told police he approached Kuhn in hopes of defusing the situation.

Kuhn identified himself and gave his address before leaving the scene. The employee told police that he and his work crew were familiar with Kuhn after working on houses near the former lawmaker’s home.

The employee told police he was eager to press charges against Kuhn, who is also an estate attorney. Trash Gurl owner and operator Melissa Polutta said she and her company also filed a complaint about Kuhn’s behavior.

A woman who witnessed the end of the employee’s argument with Kuhn captured part of the incident on her phone. The Trash Gurl truck was equipped with a dash camera, but it did not capture the entire incident, Polutta said.

“He smacked the hell out of this guy in front of us,” Polutta said in relaying her employee’s encounter with Kuhn.

Polutta’s local waste management company is known for its signature purple dumpsters and musings painted on their backs that include “Never regret anything that made you smile,” “TGIF = Trash Gurl It’s Friday” and “It is what it is.”

Police walked to Kuhn’s home after responding to the incident at about 11:15 a.m. Kuhn did not answer the door, and his vehicle was not in his driveway. Police also tried calling Kuhn about the incident, but he did not answer.

It is the second incident in recent months in which Kuhn, a one-time leader of the Charleston County GOP and former state senator, is accused of causing a disturbance or accident and then leaving the scene.

In March, Kuhn was arrested and charged with misdemeanor hit-and-run and a traffic violation of improper passing traffic after he allegedly fled the scene of an accident at Meeting and Columbus streets. Kuhn previously called that March 7 incident a “mirror-to-mirror” accident.

A Toyota 4Runner was waiting for traffic to clear before turning into a Columbus Street parking garage when Kuhn reportedly swerved around the driver’s left side into oncoming traffic. The Range Rover clipped the driver’s side mirror, causing minor damage, before it drove off.

A bystander attempted to block the Range Rover before it fled the scene. Video from the incident showed the Range Rover knocked the man to the ground in the middle of the intersection. No injuries were reported. Kuhn previously called the bystander a “Wasted Drugged-Up Man” in a statement to The Post and Courier.

He said he left the scene in March because he was going to a meeting. He also said he did not stop because the bystander was behaving “erratically.” He also later told police he did not know he hit the vehicle, then later said he thought he hit a parked vehicle.

Kuhn has paid more than $2,000 in fines and fees for 15 traffic infractions since 2001 in the greater Lowcountry area of Charleston, Berkeley, Dorchester and Colleton counties, The Post and Courier previously reported. Most of the infractions were for speeding but also included four charges of careless driving and two incidents of disregarding a traffic sign.