The millionaire funding banker who allegedly slugged a lady within the face at a Brooklyn Delight occasion final month turned himself in to cops on Monday.
Jonathan Kaye, 52, faces two counts every of assault and menacing within the third diploma, misdemeanors, and one depend of second-degree harassement, a violation, over the caught-on-camera assault that despatched the sufferer crashing down on a Park Slope road again on June 8, the NYPD mentioned.
His give up got here after the footage blew up on-line and leaflets with photographs of him have been plastered on utility poles all through the ritzy Park Slope neighborhood the place he lives together with his household in a $4 million, four-bedroom townhouse.
Kaye, who was initially placed on depart from his job as outrage mounted, resigned from the Manhattan-based Moelis& Co. funding financial institution final week.
He averted eye contact and skirted questions from reporters as detectives walked him out the NYPD’s 78th Precinct in Prospect Heights simply earlier than midday, wearing a blue polo shirt, beige cardigan, gray costume pants and carrying a navy masks over his face.
As he emerged from Brooklyn Felony Courtroom hours later, Kaye and his legal professional have been surrounded by 4 protesters who heckled the banker and adopted him on the street, calling him a spouse beater.
One clad in all black tried to shove Kaye from behind and ended up shoving his lawyer as an alternative. The unknown assailants then acquired right into a black van and sped away.
“He’s a legislation abiding man is a center aged man with zero historical past of violence. He was attacked by a gaggle of violent protesters and defended himself to get house to his household. So, you understand, we can be presenting increasingly more proof to the DA that this was nothing greater than self protection,” his legal professional, Danya Perry, instructed The Submit after Kaye’s arraignment.
The violence erupted June 8 when Kaye and members of an anti-Israel LGBTQ group clashed exterior a café close to the nook of Fifth Avenue and Third Road following the Delight occasion, in accordance with police.
Sources near Kaye insisted days later that he’d solely acted in self-defense after the group surrounded him and tossed liquid on him.
Perry doubled down on Monday, saying Kaye had been “terrorized, assaulted, and surrounded by a gaggle of unruly antisemitic protesters.”
“What the beforehand launched video clip doesn’t present is what one other video and different proof we’ve got shared with the DA does present: that these agitators fashioned a hoop at him, doused him with two unknown liquids, shoved him to the bottom, and hurled antisemitic slurs at him,” the legal professional mentioned in a press release.
“Terrified and injured, Mr Kaye managed to behave in self-defense to flee the state of affairs and return safely to his household.”
The alleged sufferer, nonetheless, insisted Kaye instigated the assault and denied the claims that she and her pals had first hurled antisemitic slurs.
“He was actually a twister of violence,” the girl, solely recognized as Micah P, instructed NBC4 final month.
“There was nothing — no slurs have been mentioned in any respect,” she added. “We didn’t even get an opportunity to get a learn of him. He was enraged and terrifying. He was a giant, unusual man who ran up on us and began swinging nearly instantly.”
Micah, who claimed the chaos broke out after Kaye known as them a “bunch of helpful idiots,” copped to tossing water on the banker – however solely after he allegedly rushed at them.
A ten-second clip of the ordeal, which doesn’t present the moments main as much as the brutal smackdown, captured a flustered Kaye allegedly strolling away from Micah together with his jacket coated in liquid.
“It’s good that he has been arrested and introduced underneath some type of carceral management,” Ron Kuby, an legal professional who reps the alleged sufferer, instructed The Submit on Monday.
“No slurs have been hurled. They didn’t know he was Jewish. They didn’t know he was a supporter of Israel — he simply appeared like a random loopy man,” he added.
New video footage of the incident from a unique perspective emerged Monday, displaying the beforehand unseen moments main as much as the alleged assault.
In it, Kaye seems to be provoked and accosted by the group, who splash him with water and Gatorade earlier than issues get bodily.
Kaye was launched with out bail at his arraignment.
“We’re hopeful that the District Legal professional will totally and pretty think about these details, together with the surge of antisemitic acts, protests, and assaults that’s ravaging our metropolis,” his legal professional mentioned.
“We’ll aggressively struggle injustice, and we look ahead to a full vindication for our shopper.”
Kaye’s subsequent court docket date is scheduled for Aug. 23.
Further reporting by Desheania Andrews, Priscilla DeGregory and Chris Nesi
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