Leo beats street fight rap
2004-09-30 08:33
New York - A judge on Wednesday threw out a lawsuit filed against star Leonardo DiCaprio and two other men for their alleged roles in a street fight over Showgirls actress Elizabeth Berkley.
DiCaprio, 29, and the others were sued for $45m by Roger Wilson, 44, who claimed that DiCaprio encouraged his friends to attack him outside the city's Morgan's Hotel in the early hours of May 4, 1998.
Wilson, an actor who appeared in two of the Porky's movies, said one of the men from DiCaprio's "posse" punched him outside the hotel's restaurant when he confronted them about repeated telephone calls to Berkley, his girlfriend.
Judge Paula Omansky said the lawsuit could proceed against Todd Healy, the man who admitted hitting Wilson. Healy said he punched Wilson in self-defence when he thought he saw him reaching for something, possibly a weapon.
Wilson had gone to the restaurant, Asia de Cuba, just before midnight to confront Jay Ferguson, an actor and friend of DiCaprio's who had met Berkley for the first time the night before at the premiere of DiCaprio's film The Man in the Iron Mask.
Wilson's claim against DiCaprio - that he aided and abetted the assault by encouraging the others to attack him - turned on the star's alleged statement to the others in the restaurant to "go out there and kick his (expletive)."
In dismissing the action against DiCaprio, the judge said Wilson and Healy never heard the statement. Only the restaurant security guard heard it, the judge said.
She cited Healy's sworn statement that he was never in the restaurant, that he came upon the group outside and that he decked Wilson in self-defence.
She said that if Healy did not hear the statement, or act on it, then DiCaprio's simply having uttered it inside the restaurant does not support Wilson's aiding and abetting claim.
DiCaprio's lawyer, Paul Callan, said the ruling left his client "totally out of the case".
A statement from DiCaprio's publicist said he is "grateful that the judicial system has finally resolved this case in a fair and just manner".
The judge also dropped the cases against Ferguson and another DiCaprio acquaintance, Kevin Connelly. She noted that Wilson did not allege that either one of them hit or encouraged anyone to hit him.
Police investigated Wilson's complaint that he had been assaulted by Healy, but no charges were filed.
- AP