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Socialite And Daughter Of Former Washington Redskins Owner Arrested After Alleged Assault, Anti-Semitic Slur At Swanky NYC Restaurant
"Hurry up, Jew," the millionaire socialite allegedly said. "I've got places to be."
By Jaime Lutz
The 29-year-old daughter of the former owner of the Washington Redskins was arrested in New York City on Wednesday after she allegedly assaulted someone with a $300 glass purse and made an anti-Semitic remark, The Washington Post reported.
Jacqueline Kent Cooke — the millionaire daughter of Jack Kent Cooke, who owned The Washington Redskins football team for decades until his death in 1997 — was charged with second-degree assault and is being investigated by the Hate Crimes Task Force.
“The people are investigating this case as a possible hate crime,” Assistant District Attorney Jorge Deossa said at Cooke’s arraignment.
Cooke was waiting in the coat check line at the upscale Upper East Side restaurant Caravaggio at just before midnight on New Year’s Eve, near Matthew Haberkorn, a 52-year-old man, and his family. Cooke became impatient and snapped at Haberkorn’s mother, a 77-year-old woman, and said “Hurry up, Jew,” Haberkorn told the New York Daily News.
“Hurry up, Jew,” Cooke allegedly repeated, “I got places to be.” Her boyfriend told Haberkorn’s daughters “Happy bat mitzvah,” Haberkorn alleged.
After they left the restaurant, Haberkorn confronted Cooke.
“I walked up to her and asked her why she said that,” Haberkorn told the Daily News. “She took her purse, which was a mirrored glass purse, and smashed me with it.”
The purse was a $300 Lulu Guinness mirrored Perspex clutch, according to the Daily News. Haberkorn was left bloodied.
Cooke has filed a cross-complaint against Haberkorn, the Daily News said, after the incident left her ring finger broken. Her attorney, Rebecca Phipps, says Cooke acted out of self-defense and never made any anti-semitic comments.
“To begin with, my client never made the comment, never made the slur she was accused of making,” Phipps said.
“After (Haberkorn) and his wife heard what she thought she heard, they started screaming and yelling at my client,” Phipps said. “He was the one who made the first physical contact.”
She was arraigned on Thursday and charged with second-degree assault, a felony, the Post said.
Previously, Cooke had told The Daily News that she hadn’t even gone out that night.
“There’s nothing that happened on New Year’s Eve,” she said. “I was here in my apartment.”
[Image: Getty Images]
