Star fights groping charge
2005-07-15 11:08
Samuel Maull
New York - Christian Slater rejected a plea bargain deal from prosecutors on Thursday on a charge of groping a woman.
Slater was charged with forcible touching - a misdemeanour that carries up to one year in jail - after he allegedly walked up behind a woman and grabbed her buttocks as she was buying a soda in a small grocery store in Manhattan in the early morning of May 31.
"We believe this case warrants dismissal," said lawyer Eric Franz, in turning down a proposal that Slater perform three days of community service.
Under the plea bargain offer, Slater would have pleaded guilty to a charge of second-degree harassment in return for the community service.
The 35-year-old actor said nothing during the brief hearing before Criminal Court Judge Richard Weinberg. Afterward, outside the Manhattan courthouse, he complied with a fan's request to autograph the side of her T-shirt, near the hem.
Weinberg set a date of August 19 for lawyers to file any motions in the case. Slater was ordered to return to court on September 19, when the judge said he would rule on the motions.
Slater, whose movies include Heathers, Broken Arrow and True Romance, told reporters he was due in London at the end of September to rehearse for his role in the play Sweet Bird of Youth.
According to authorities, Slater and his girlfriend were arguing at a bodega on Manhattan's Upper East Side at 01:50. The complainant, who has not been identified, was in the same store. She flagged down police, who located Slater a short distance away, authorities said.
Slater was sentenced to 90 days in jail for an August 1997 incident where he reportedly bit one man in the stomach and threw a police officer against a wall during a rowdy Los Angeles party.
- SAPA