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Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Naomi Campbell escapes criminal charges after 'assaulting her limo driver' in New York

By David Gardner and Chris Johnson

Police hunt: Naomi Campbell allegedly assaulted her limousine driver


Feisty supermodel Naomi Campbell won't face criminal charges over an alleged assault in New York last night.

The 39-year-old model had been wanted for questioning by the police after her male driver accused her of slapping and punching him while he was driving her around New York.

Police issued a harassment report in consultation with the district attorney's office because no officer witnessed what took place in the black Cadillac Escalade.

The move came after the driver decided not to pursue the matter. The report doesn't carry any penalty.

Earlier in the day, Miss Campbell was sitting in the back seat of the black Cadillac Escalade when she allegedly flew into a rage and slugged the 27-year-old limousine driver.

It isn’t the first time the famously cantankerous British beauty has been in trouble with the law over her violent tantrums involving employees.

She has previously been charged with beating up an assistant and throwing a jewel-encrusted mobile phone at her maid.

When the driver stopped the car in midtown Manhattan to call the police at about 3pm yesterday, Miss Campbell allegedly jumped out and fled on foot.

The chauffeur, who had been hired for the day, reportedly suffered a bruised cheek and ‘bumps and bruises’ in the alleged assault.

The driver, whose name has not been released, told police he pulled over after Campbell hit him from behind, causing his head to hit the steering wheel, which resulted in bruising under his right eye.

It has also been claimed Miss Campbell became angry because she suspected the driver, the former driver of her boyfriend Vlad Doronin, for covering up his indiscretions a year ago when he was Doronin's driver.

The driver spoke to a traffic agent, who alerted police. Campbell was not at the scene when officers arrived, police said.

The driver told police he picked Campbell up at a Manhattan hotel and was taking her to Astoria Studios, a TV and film studio complex in Queens, New York Police Department spokesman Paul Browne said.

'There shouldn't be a rush to judgement,' her spokesman Jeff Raymond said. 'Naomi will cooperate voluntarily, and there is more to the story than meets the eye.'


Feisty: The British supermodel Naomi Campbell in an iconic photo taken in 1998 in London, and, right, her former maid Ana Scolavino, who Campbell admitted assaulting three years ago


Over the years, she has been accused of attacking her household employees and two police officers at London's Heathrow Airport.

In June 2008, she pleaded guilty in the Heathrow case after prosecutors said she cursed, kicked and spat at police in a rage over a missing piece of luggage. She was sentenced to 200 hours of community service.

She also did a week of community service sweeping floors and scrubbing toilets in a Manhattan rubbish-truck garage in 2007 after pleading guilty to misdemeanor assault for hurling her mobile phone at her maid Ana Scolavino because of a vanished pair of jeans.


Fashionable friends: Naomi has tried to develop a calmer public image of late, seen here with the Prime Minister's wife Sarah Brown at a Haiti earthquake fundraiser in London. The pair are often spotted together at charity events


In 2000, Miss Campbell pleaded guilty in Toronto to an assault charge for beating an assistant who said the model whacked her on the head with a phone.

A few of Campbell's former aides and maids have sued her, accusing her of violent outbursts; some cases have been settled on undisclosed terms.

In recent years Campbell has attempted to cultivate a calmer public image, and has often been seen at charity functions with the Prime Minister's wife Sarah Brown.


Naomi was in a black Cadillac Escalade similar to this one when she is said to have hit her 27-year-old driver


The alleged incident happened in New York (file picture)


source: dailymail