Lawyers for a man charged with assault in the slapping of Rudy Giuliani's back claim that the former New York City mayor lied about the event to maintain his name in the headlines.
The Legal Aid Society attacked Giuliani in a statement on Monday, accusing him of exaggerating the event and police of overreacting to the highly publicized meeting in a grocery shop. The statement comes following reports that ShopRite employee Daniel Gill made physical contact with Giuliani during an altercation on Sunday.
Rudy Guiliani Slapped on Back
The charity legal firm stated that Giuliani suffered nothing significantly approximating bodily harm and that Gill merely patted him to catch his attention during the incident. The altercation took place inside a ShopRite on Staten Island, New York, when Giuliani had stopped to use the restroom while campaigning for his son Andrew Giuliani's Republican gubernatorial quest. The Legal Aid Society statement paints the incident in a far different light than Giuliani's.
Giuliani previously stated that the slap felt like a shot in the back. Giuliani, 78, said he was blessed to be in decent health since he could have hit the ground and broken his head. Giuliani was criticized on social media when a video of Gill's slap went viral, before asking for Gill to be prosecuted. Gill, 39, was detained and charged with felony second-degree assault, but the charge was eventually reduced to misdemeanor assault and two other crimes, according to ABC station WABC-TV.
Surveillance Caught The Incident
The Legal Aid Society stated Gill had no prior involvement with the legal system and that the allegations were inconsistent with existing legislation. The law firm claimed Gill was poked in the chest and threatened by one of Giuliani's partners. Furthermore, the legal firm claimed that Gill was necessarily detained by the New York Police Department (NYPD) for more than 24 hours.
Surveillance footage showed Giuliani receiving a strong pat on the back that caught him off guard. The man was later arrested and charged with second-degree assault on a person over the age of 65, Newsweek reported. A representative for the Staten Island district attorney said the heckler was arrested and arraigned Monday on minor counts including third-degree assault.
He was freed on his recognizance without bond and is due back in court on August 17. According to WABC, the heckler was first charged with second-degree assault, a felony, before the charges were reduced.
According to police, the man responded, "What's up, scumbag?" According to Giuliani, the man accused him of being a "woman murderer," which he misinterpreted as a reference to the Supreme Court's decision overturning Roe v. Wade. Giuliani hardly responds in the video when his back is touched, but in subsequent interviews, he claims it threw him forward and nearly caused him to collapse.
He told Republican radio presenter Curtis Sliwa on WABC that it felt "like somebody shot me," and later remarked in a Facebook news conference that it felt "as if a boulder struck me." According to a criminal complaint acquired by USA TODAY, the slap led Giuliani to stumble forward and inflicted informant bodily harm to the back and left side of his body, including but not limited to redness, swelling, and severe discomfort.
In a statement to USA TODAY, a ShopRite spokesperson said the company is aware of the incident and the employee is suspended pending termination. During his Facebook news conference, Giuliani said the video probably is a little deceptive because it just shows that hand on my back, and that the heckler should face jail time.
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