President of crime stoppers group says he was attacked over lawsuit

The group is suing a man known for offering large rewards to solve crimes.
COLUMBUS (AP) -- Joe Mammana, who is known for providing reward money to help get high-profile criminal cases solved, has found himself in the middle of an unsolved crime.
The head of a Columbus crime stoppers group suing Mammana says he became a crime victim himself after being beaten up by a baseball bat-wielding attacker who told him to drop the lawsuit.
Mammana, who owns a Pennsylvania egg farm, said he had nothing to do with the attack on Kevin Miles, president of Central Ohio Crime Stoppers.
Columbus police say they are investigating but have yet to release any details of the attack. They also refused to say anything about possible suspects.
But Mammana has done little to make himself a sympathetic figure. He mocked Miles' allegation, ridiculed his weight and suggested the beating was deserved.
"If he was able to talk, it wasn't me," Mammana said in an interview this week with The Associated Press. "Where was he, at Wendy's?"
"I don't know anything about it, but I'm sure if he's lying about me like he's lied about everybody else, he deserved it," Mammana said. "I'm not saying I'm perfect, but I hope somebody there is looking at this and saying, 'You know what, something ain't right here."'
Account of attack
Miles said he was walking his dog in an alley behind his house about 8 a.m. Sunday when a car pulled up behind him. A man got out with a baseball bat and started attacking him, he said.
"The arm, the leg, the back -- I was hit all over," Miles said.
Miles said he pulled out his handgun but was not able to fire because of his injuries. The man eventually stopped hitting him and left. Miles called a detective who works with the crime stoppers group, then spent seven hours being treated at a hospital.
Miles' attorney, Kinsley Nyce, said the attacker told Miles to drop the lawsuit. Miles won't comment on exactly what was said during the encounter.
Miles, 49, said he's not scared. "I'm going forward with my life and hopefully they'll be able to find out who did it and bring the persons to justice," he said.
Lawsuit
Central Ohio Crime Stoppers sued Mammana on Nov. 15 seeking up to 131,000 the group said Mammana had pledged. Mammana said Crime Stoppers knew he pays reward money only when an arrest results in a conviction. He also said the group forged his name on a contract.
Mammana has offered reward money in various high-profile crime cases in several states as well as in the disappearance of Alabama teenager Natalee Holloway in Aruba last year.
Last year, Mammana co-sponsored a gun buyback program in Philadelphia. The commission overseeing the Philadelphia school district honored Mammana this month for his philanthropic work.
"You can't have vigilante justice, so the best thing is money, and the reward money seems to work," Mammana said. "When you throw a big amount of money at something, all of a sudden people come out of the woodwork with information."
But Richard Carter, executive director of Crime Stoppers International, warns against offering large rewards since they can spark multiple requests for payment, second thoughts by donors and allegations that prosecutors are paying for testimony, which can hurt chances of a conviction.
Popular in Philadelphia
Mammana often pledges help to the Citizens Crime Commission of Delaware Valley in Philadelphia, and recently paid about 10,000 for information that helped solve a rape case, said Santo Montecalvo, the group's vice president.
"I don't know where they're coming off in Ohio badmouthing the guy," Montecalvo said.
Mammana, 47, who owns Yardley Farms, a suburban Philadelphia company that supplies egg products used in the food industry, served time in jail in the 1990s for various crimes, including hitting his wife.
A feisty man given at times to bluster, he acknowledges his past but says it gave him a perspective that made him want to help people who've been hurt.
"What I did years ago just keeps coming back over and over and again," Mammana said. "I did my time in jail and I come home and I run a successful business and I move forward."