New York socialite charged after man bashed with designer purse amid spray of racist slurs
The millionaire socialite daughter of a former Washington Redskins owner has been charged with assault in New York after allegedly bashing a man over the head with an expensive designer purse and abusing him with anti-Semitic slurs.
Jacqueline Kent Cooke, 29, was leaving a posh Upper East Side restaurant called Caravaggio when she got into an altercation with a complete stranger.
Lawyer Matthew Haberkorn, 52, told the New York Daily News he was standing in the restaurant's coat-check area when Ms Cooke shouted, "Hurry up, Jew!" at his 77-year-old mother while his shocked wife and daughter looked on.
When Mr Haberkorn's wife asked what she had said, Ms Cooke allegedly repeated, "Hurry up, Jew, I got places to be!"
The altercation then moved out onto the sidewalk, where the San Francisco-based lawyer confronted Ms Cooke for her anti-Semitic slur.
Her response, it is alleged, was to smash her $300 Lulu Guinness mirrored glass purse over his head.
At that point, one of Mr Haberkorn's four daughters began filming the fracas, which also involved Ms Cooke's boyfriend.
Ms Cooke can be seen falling to the ground as she takes another swing at Mr Haberkorn but misses.
After another failed attempt to tackle the lawyer, and a further exchange of expletive-ridden insults, the young couple move away, shouting "self-defense" and "you harrassed me!"
On Wednesday a reporter from the New York Daily News who visited Ms Cooke's apartment was confronted by a denial that the incident ever happened, with Ms Cooke claiming she had been at home in her apartment all night.
Jacqueline Kent Cooke's father, Jack Kent Cooke, was a Canadian entrepreneur who owned the Redskins, along with the Los Angeles Lakers, Los Angeles Kings and Los Angeles Wolves.
He died in 1997.
