Pastor issued summons for battery at Southern Decadence

A Christian pastor protesting the predominantly gay Southern Decadence festival in New Orleans was issued a summons after scuffling with a security worker at a French Quarter bar, police said. Police said the Reverend Grant E. Storms on Sunday night argued with Mark Counts, who works at the Good Fellow Bar, about whether Storms could enter the bar to videotape the goings-on. Storms and Counts received summonses for battery after both accused the other of pushing. Both must appear before a municipal court judge this week. Storms is a constant critic of the annual event and led a group of about 200 fellow Christian protesters through the crowds Friday night. Storms has said gay men routinely expose themselves and perform sex acts in public during the festival. Last year he shot videotape and caught numerous acts of public indecency on tape. Police said 47 people were arrested at the festival over the holiday weekend, most of them on local charges including public urination, public intoxication, and indecent exposure. No one was arrested for public sex. In related news, police will seek hate-crimes charges against a suspect arrested in the stabbing of a Pennsylvania man during the festival. Authorities are not sure if the victim of the Saturday night stabbing--a 53-year-old man from Eddystone, Pa.--was in New Orleans for the festival. But investigators alleged on Sunday that they had learned that Tod W. Martinek, 53, had gone to the French Quarter with the specific intent of injuring or killing a festival participant. The victim, whose name has not been released, was hospitalized in stable condition, and his wound was not believed to be life-threatening, police captain Marlon Defillo said.