May 17, 1962 - James R. Hoffa was arrested tonight and charged with assaulting Samuel Baron, a 59-year-old Teamsters Union subordinate, for speaking back to him. Mr. Hoffa told reporters he would have “absolutely nothing” to say about the incident. Mr. Hoffa, 49, was booked at the First Precinct police station in Washington, D.C. Mr. Baron, field director of the warehouse division of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, charged that Mr. Hoffa had knocked him down twice without provocation after cursing him in the board room of the union’s headquarters in Washington. Mr. Baron, a veteran of 35 years in the labor movement, received reporters in his apartment last night. He had requested two U.S. deputy marshals as protection. Mr. Baron’s left eye was blackened, and his right eyebrow was deeply cut. The white telephone in the kitchen of the apartment rang intermittently as top Teamster officials sought to reach Mr. Baron. They were apparently trying to persuade him to withdraw his charge. After Mr. Hoffa was fingerprinted and photographed, he was released on $500 bail. A police spokesman said that Mr. Hoffa would be treated exactly like “any other person charged with the same offense.”
