It is probably in the public _and_ airlines interest (in the long term) that this discussion goes to court.
Hopefully there will also be discussed some of the imposed commercial practices that favour this situation, and which can create an unsafe environment.
I do appreciate that, for instance, had the Captain intervened to prevent this outcome (one way or the other) he/she may then be given some hard time afterwards (e.g. had he refused to transport his colleagues).
Also clearly the gate agent had a problem to try to solve (either due to his mistake or someone else's) in a short time; even in a confrontation I cannot think they want to get to a point when someone is getting hurt! I hope (s)he also gets all the support (s)he may need.