An Iowa State employee and campus figure was charged with assault after an incident Wednesday night during a lecture at the Memorial Union.

Ev Cherrington, also known on campus as the “God-Socks Guy,” was accused of assaulting an ISU student, Shane Howard, and his 5-year-old daughter.

Jerry Stewart, associate director of the Department of Public Safety, said DPS received a call at 9:08 p.m. Wednesday of “someone grabbing people at the lecture in the Great Hall.”

Howard, freshman in art and design, told DPS officers that Cherrington, who works at the Hub, grabbed his arm and the arm of his daughter as the two were exiting the Great Hall of the Union, where they and Howard’s wife Shannon were attending a lecture by punk-rock icon Jello Biafra.

He said he was accused by Cherrington of being a bad parent for allowing his daughter to attend the spoken-word concert by Biafra.

“He was trying to take my daughter apparently because I am a horrible, sinful man because I brought my daughter to that kind of ‘filth,'” Howard said. “I was trying to keep hold of my daughter.”

Cherrington, however, said he didn’t touch Howard’s daughter and only touched Howard “between the elbow and the wrist” to get Howard’s attention.

“I just said, ‘Do you mean you would bring your daughter to hear this filth?'” Cherrington said. “He just turned around and said, ‘Don’t touch me.'”

Cherrington said he continued on his way out of the Great Hall to use the restroom and then returned to his seat. After he sat down, DPS officers arrived.

“We spoke with the parties involved and, at the request of Mr. Howard, charged Mr. Cherrington with assault,” Stewart said.

Cherrington was charged and “released on his promise to appear in court,” Stewart said.

Howard said he was interested in pursuing attempted kidnapping or child stealing charges against Cherrington, in addition to the assault charge.

However, Stewart said there was “no evidence that Mr. Cherrington was trying to kidnap the daughter.”

Stewart said kidnapping is defined in Iowa Code 710.1 as “either confin[ing] a person or remov[ing] a person from one place to another, knowing that the person who confines or removes the other person has neither the authority nor the consent of the other to do so…”

Kidnapping also must be accompanied by the intent to hold the victim for ransom, to use the victim as a hostage, to inflict serious injury or to abuse the victim sexually, to secretly confine the victim or to interfere with any governmental function, Stewart said, and “there was no evidence of that.”

Howard said he wanted to press charges, but DPS officers “tried to talk my wife and I out of it.”

“DPS tried to tell me that he’s never done anything violent,” he said. “Obviously he’s violent because he attacked us.”

Howard said his daughter sustained five or six bruises after the incident.

“They said, ‘If he had taken your daughter, he wouldn’t have tried to hurt her,'” he said. “Well it hurt, and it bruised her.”

Howard said he pressed charges because he was worried for the safety of other people who may come into contact with Cherrington while on the ISU campus. He said he had spoken with several other people who said they had also been harassed by Cherrington on campus.

“He’s out there accosting people and harassing people, and the university knows it,” Howard said.

Stewart said this was the first report DPS has received of Cherrington harassing another person, although Cherrington was charged by DPS earlier this semester of soliciting without a license.

Cherrington denied the assault charge and said he didn’t understand Howard’s motives.

“I never touched his daughter,” he said.

Cherrington will be arraigned in court on May 6.

A conviction of assault, which is a simple misdemeanor, carries a punishment of either 30 days in jail or a maximum fine of $100.