Defendant Aids Reporter Who Fainted in Courtroom

Avi Werdesheim, a medical student on trial for assault in Baltimore City, assisted a woman who had fainted in the courtroom on Tuesday, according to a report in the Baltimore Sun.

Werdesheim, a medical student at University of Maryland, Baltimore County, checked Sun reporter Tricia Bishop's vital signs before she was transported to a local hospital, the report states.

Bishop was treated and released.

Werdesheim and his brother, Eli, residents of Cheswolde, are on trial for a Nov. 19, 2010 incident, in which the brothers allegedly followed and beat Corey Ausby, then 15, in Upper Park Heights.

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Ausby suffered injuries, including to his head, when Avi allegedly struck him with a two-way radio, according to court documents.

The Werdesheim brothers face charges of false imprisonment, second-degree assault and carrying a deadly weapon, the two-way radio, with intent to injure, according to reports.

The brothers say they acted in self-defense. The Werdesheims' attorneys contends that Eli Werdesheim, who was then a member of the Shomrim of Baltimore neighborhood watch group in Northwest Baltimore, was patrolling the neighborhood for Shomrim. The defense also argues that Ausby ripped a piece of wood from a nearby lawn pallet, and wielded it with nails still protruding from it.

Introduced as evidence is a Baltimore City Police photograph of the wood stick, with police tape surrounding it. That stick itself was not collected, William Sloan, a crime lab technician from the Baltimore City Police Department said last week.

The prosecution rested its case case Tuesday, and witnesses for the defense were scheduled to testify Wednesday.