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Posted at 1:38 p.m., Friday, December 14, 2007

NBA: Nets' Kidd sued, accused of groping model

By SAMUEL MAULL
Associated Press Writer

NEW YORK — New Jersey Nets star Jason Kidd is being sued by a 23-year-old model who accuses him of groping and threatening her at a Manhattan nightclub two months ago.

An attorney for Kidd called the allegations "false" and "defamatory" and the lawsuit an attempt to get money from the All-Star guard, who earns almost $20 million a year.

The lawsuit, filed in Manhattan's state Supreme Court, says Kidd "battered and assaulted" the woman in the Lower West Side club Tenjune on Oct. 10 when he "grabbed her buttocks and crotch on multiple occasions."

"He kept staring at her and then went over and grabbed her butt," the woman's lawyer, Russell S. Adler, said Friday. He said, "She told him 'Get off me! Get away from me!"' before bouncers pulled Kidd away.

Words were exchanged and Kidd grabbed the woman again, pushing her against a wall and putting his hand under her dress, Adler said. When she protested, the lawyer said, Kidd asked, "If we have a fight, who do you think is going to win?"

Adler said when his client tried to send a text message, Kidd slapped her cell phone out of her hand. Adler said she left the club in the Meatpacking District a short time after that.

A spokesman for the New York City Police Department confirmed on Oct. 17 that the woman had filed a criminal complaint against the All-Star guard, accusing him of the acts now alleged in the lawsuit that was filed Thursday.

Adler said he was unaware of any law enforcement action against Kidd related to that complaint. "We are hopeful that the district attorney's office will file charges against him," the lawyer said.

The woman's lawsuit asks for unspecified compensatory and punitive damages.

Kidd's attorney, Paul Grand, issued a statement that said, "We have not yet seen the complaint, but these claims were false when they were first fabricated two months ago, and they remain false today. This lawsuit is nothing more than a brazen and defamatory search for a payout."

A spokesman for Kidd, Scott Miranda, did not immediately return a call for comment, but he said in October the accusation was "a complete fabrication" and that it was "sad that someone would make something like this up."

Gary Sussman, Nets vice president for public relations, said Friday the organization had no comment since the claims involve a pending legal matter.

Kidd, in the midst of a divorce, has denied his wife's charges that he cheated on her and physically abused her during their 10-year marriage. He claimed in his divorce papers earlier this year that he was the victim of spousal abuse.

The couple married in 1997 and were involved in a domestic violence matter six years ago when Kidd was playing for the Phoenix Suns. He pleaded guilty to spousal abuse, was fined $200 and ordered to take anger management training.