Alec Baldwin denies reports that he assaulted another man over a parking spot.
The actor was arrested on Friday and charged with assault. Baldwin's accuser, Wojciech Cieszowski, claimed that he struck him after Cieszowski swooped into a parking spot that Baldwin wanted. Baldwin called the allegations "egregiously misstated" through his charity's Twitter account. He added that the idea he punched someone over a parking spot was "clickbait entertainment."
"Normally, I would not comment on something as egregiously misstated as today’s story," he wrote. "However, the assertion that I punched anyone over a parking spot is false. I wanted to go on the record stating as much. I realize that it has become a sport to tag people w as many negative charges and defaming allegations as possible for the purposes of clickbait entertainment. Fortunately, no matter how reverberating the echos, it doesn’t make the statements true."
Baldwin has a somewhat solid defense, according to TMZ. If Baldwin can prove that he and Cieszowski were fighting each other, then he can be found not guilty due to New York's mutual combat laws.
Mutual combat means that both parties have entered into a fight by mutual consent or intention. A grainy video captured by a surveillance camera appears to show Baldwin and Cieszowski shoving each other. Since both men are apparently engaging in the fight, it could be argued that what Baldwin did not commit a crime.
