NFL heiress Jacqueline Kent Cooke arrested for felony assault
Cooke allegedly hit a lawyer in the head after a verbal confrontation.
— -- The wealthy daughter of late Washington Redskins owner Jack Kent Cooke has been arrested in New York and charged with a New Year’s Eve assault on a California man who was left bloodied in front of his family.
Jacqueline Kent Cooke, 29, was charged with assaulting Matthew Haberkorn, a personal injury attorney based in Redwood City, California, outside Caravaggio, a Manhattan restaurant on East 74th Street, where he had been dining with his elderly mother, wife and daughters.
The family was leaving the restaurant when Cooke, behind them in the coat check line, allegedly uttered “Hurry up, Jew,” Haberkorn’s attorney Andrew Miltenberg told ABC News.
“And his wife turned around and said, ‘What did you say?’” Miltenberg said. “And [Cooke] says, ‘Hurry up Jew I got places to be.’”
Miltenberg said Haberkorn followed his family outside and confronted Cooke over her remarks.
“Why would you say that to my wife and children and mother,” Haberkorn asked Cooke, according to Miltenberg. “Then she took a swing at him and hit him in the head with her purse.”
Haberkorn was left with a gash to the head, blood dripping down his cheek, Miltenberg said. He was hit with a box-shaped purse made of glass that caused two lacerations, according to the criminal complaint.
“He’s pretty upset,” Miltenberg added. “It’s more than just the fact that it’s his mother, wife and two kids watching him get hit a couple of times. It’s very scary when subtle anti-Semitism becomes overt. It demonstrates a shift in societal thinking that it’s OK to be openly anti-Semitic.”
Cooke was arrested Wednesday and faces a felony charge of assault in the second degree. She was released on her own recognizance and the case was adjourned to Feb. 15. Cooke's attorney did not respond to ABC News' request for comment.
After the criminal case is resolved Miltenberg said Haberkorn would press forward with a civil lawsuit against Cooke, whose late father owned the Washington Redskins, Los Angeles Lakers and Los Angeles Kings.
