- LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Apollo
11 astronaut Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin escaped criminal prosecution
on Friday for punching a conspiracy theorist who wanted him to swear on
a Bible that he really did walk on the moon in 1969.
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- Los Angeles County prosecutors declined to file a misdemeanor
battery charge against the 72-year-old ex-astronaut, who said he was defending
himself and his stepdaughter when he clocked 37-year-old Bart Winfield
Sibrel outside a Beverly Hills hotel on Sept. 9.
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- Sibrel -- who made TV documentaries and films debunking
the Apollo 11 moon landing on July 20, 1969 -- videotaped the incident
for a new film. He submitted the tape to Beverly Hills police and asked
that assault charges be filed against Aldrin.
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- Beverly Hills police said witnesses came forward during
the investigation saying they saw Sibrel aggressively poke Aldrin with
a Bible and that Sibrel had lured Aldrin to the hotel under false pretenses
so he could interview the space hero.
-
- Deputy District Attorney Elizabeth Ratinoff said the
videotape showed Sibrel following Aldrin on the street with a Bible and
calling him a "thief, liar and coward."
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- When the ex-astronaut struck Sibrel once in the face
with his fist, Sibrel turned to his camera crew and asked: "Did you
get that?" Ratinoff said.
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- The district attorney's office decided not to file charges
because Sibrel sustained no visible injury and did not seek medical attention,
and because Aldrin had no previous criminal record, she said.
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- Sibrel claims his new film proves that the Apollo 11
astronauts faked footage of their 1969 voyage to the Moon to fool the Soviet
Union into thinking the United States had won the space race.
-
- Aldrin was the second man to take a walk on the Moon,
following Neil Armstrong on to the lunar surface, a feat recorded on grainy
black-and-white film footage and transmitted around the world.
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