A graduate student who was convicted of assault earlier this summer requested Monday that the Iowa District Court vacate its final judgment and send his case back to trial.

In the appeal, Daniel Gonnerman said the state failed to prove all essential elements to find his client, Joseph Keller, guilty of simple assault.

“There wasn’t sufficient evidence to convict Mr. Keller of assault,” he said.

Keller, graduate student in mathematics and research assistant in the department of statistics, was arrested April 22 and charged with simple misdemeanor assault after a confrontation before a class in which several anti-Semitic comments were made.

A jury found Keller guilty of the assault charges June 26. Keller filed his notice of appeal July 25.

During the hearing Monday at the Story County Courthouse in Nevada, Gonnerman said he made objections during the cross examination of Keller that were overruled by the court. The questions were in regard to Keller’s opinions of Jews.

“The state mainly got a conviction as a result of the anti-Semitic slurs,” Gonnerman said.

He said no physical contact between Keller and the victim, Doug Ray, took place, and that mere words did not constitute an assault. Ray is a graduate student in mathematics.

Daniel Rothman, assistant Story County attorney, said it was important for the jurors to know of the potential motives of the defendant, including his anti-Semitic beliefs.

“The anti-Semitic nature of the language used during the assault by the defendant and directed toward a victim that the defendant thought to be Jewish, is probative as it shows the reasonableness of the victim in thinking and testifying that he believed that there was a serious likelihood of immediate physical contact that would be injurious or offensive,” Rothman said in his brief of resistance.

After listening to arguments from Rothman and Gonnerman, District Court Judge Dale Ruigh said he would review tape recordings of Keller’s June 26 trial before reaching his decision. The decision could come in the next two months.

— Nicole Paseka