Civil Rights Entertainment
Alec Baldwin Faces Civil Suit Over Parking Spot Fracas
April 2, 2019 April 2, 2019 BRAD KUTNER
Assault, battery, celebrity, NYC, slander
Alec Baldwin walks out of the New York Police Department's 10th Precinct on Nov. 2, 2018, after he was arrested for allegedly punching a man in the face during a dispute over a parking spot outside his New York City home. Baldwin said at the time that any assertion he punched anyone over a parking spot is false, and that the episode was "egregiously misstated." (AP Photo/Julie Jacobson)
MANHATTAN (CN) – Calling his "life changed forever," a Polish immigrant who says he was clobbered in broad daylight by Alec Baldwin has sued the actor for assault, battery and slander.
"When you're a star, they let you do it – hit 'em right in the face," says the complaint filed Sunday in Manhattan Supreme Court.
Represented by the law firm Emery Celli, contractor Wojciech Cieszkowski recounts his side of an East Village altercation that led Baldwin to plead guilty to harassment in February.
Cieszkowski notes that he lives in Rockland County but had come into the city on Nov. 2 last year for a business meeting. A parking spot opened up on East 10th Street between University Place and Broadway, and he took it.
That's when the former "30 Rock" actor emerged from his SUV and began yelling "a series of profanities" at Cieszkowski, according to the complaint.
Cieszkowski says he had been trying to ignore the tirade, even after Baldwin shoved him in the chest with both hands. As Cieszkowski tried to use a nearby parking meter, however, the complaint says Baldwin struck him in the jaw.
The actor was originally charged with attempted assault, but prosecutors dropped that misdemeanor count when Baldwin agreed to attend an anger-management class as part of his harassment plea.
But Cieszkowski says the physical effects of his encounter with Baldwin were only the beginning. Baldwin allegedly added insult to injury when he went on "The Ellen Show" on Feb. 4, 2019.
After describing Baldwin's history of getting violent with photographers and flight attendants, the complaint quotes Baldwin as telling Ellen that Cieszkowski "was going to run my wife over with his car when he was stealing my parking spot."
Cieszkowski denies the implication that he drove dangerously.
"Mr. Cieszkowski stopped his car, waited patiently for a parking spot to open up, and pulled into the parking spot safely," the complaint states. "At no time during the incident did Mr. Cieszkowski endanger Mrs. Baldwin or anyone else."
At the time of his plea deal, Baldwin lashed out against press coverage of his case. "Nothing that resembles justice ever enters or leaves any courtroom in this country," the actor tweeted.
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