Dog Story

The Vice President of the United States was sued last week for assault and false imprisonment. James Heavey, 29, a San Francisco Naval Shipyard draftsman, charged that Richard Nixon had caused him to be forcibly detained at a political meeting in San Mateo last October. Everyone agreed that Heavey had shouted, "Tell us a dog story, Dick," in the midst of a televised speech, and that the Vice President had ignored the heckling until after the broadcast. Then, according to one version of the story, Secret Service men had held Heavey on Nixon's orders, while the Vice President publicly scolded him for his rudeness. Afterwards, Heavey was hustled from the hall and thrown down. Heavey asked $150,000 in damages.

Nixon's friends gave a different version of what happened. After the broadcast, they said, Nixon told the audience that in 200 public appearances no one before Heavey had been rude enough to heckle while Nixon was on the air. The Secret Service men, charged by law with protecting the Vice President, had not stepped in until Heckler Heavey had picked up a used flashbulb and made a threatening gesture with it. At that point, Nixon's witnesses say, a posse of Secret Service men escorted Heavey outside, where he tripped on some television wires and fell.

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