NBA Star Tony Parker Sues Club for Injury to Eye During Brawl Between Chris Brown and Drake

Tony Parker, a point guard for the San Antonio Spurs, has filed a $20 Million lawsuit against the W.i.P. nightclub in New York and its operators, saying his left eye was damaged during a brawl at the club last week involving the R&B singer Chris Brown, the rapper Drake and their entourages.

The suit, filed in State Supreme Court in Manhattan on Thursday, says the owners of the club, on Vandam Street in SoHo, did not provide enough security guards and were negligent in allowing Mr. Brown and Drake in the club at the same time “despite known tension between the two.”

The lawsuit says Mr. Parker was sitting at a table apart from Mr. Brown and Drake when the fight erupted on June 14, during which his cornea was injured, hindering his ability to play basketball, the complaint said.

The owners of the club declined to comment on the lawsuit, according to their publicist, Elizabeth Rosenthal.

On Friday, the New York State Liquor Authority filed a total of 14 charges, dating to March 11, against W.i.P. and a club above it, Greenhouse, which belongs to the same partners. Some counts were related to the brawl, including a charge of allowing the premises “to become disorderly by suffering or permitting an altercation and/or assault to occur.” The owners have until July 11 to respond to the charges.

“This place has a history of violations, so they’re obviously looking at losing their license,” said William Crowley Jr., an agency spokesman. He added that the owners had been fined more than $15,000 in recent years.

Last week, the police shut down W.i.P. and Greenhouse.

Dareh Gregorian & Dan Mangan | June 22, 2012 | New York Post

This wasn’t the kind of bottle service NBA star Tony Parker had in mind.

The San Antonio Spurs guard — injured in the Chris Brown-Drake melee at a SoHo nightclub — filed a $20 Million lawsuit against its owners today, saying they should have known better than to let the Rihanna love rivals in at the same time.

In papers filed in Manhattan Supreme Court, Parker holds W.i.P.’s owners responsible for the “corneal laceration of the left eye and other injuries” he suffered in the bottle-throwing brawl at the now-shuttered Vandam Street club.

His lawyer, David Jaroslawicz, said the extent of Parker’s wounds aren’t yet known but noted eye injuries “certainly don’t improve your outside shot.”

The suit does not name Brown or Drake, who have both dated Rihanna, as defendants but blames the club for creating the combustible combination.

“The defendants were reckless, careless and negligent in permitting Drake’s entourage and Brown’s entourage to be in the club at the same time despite known tension between the two,” the filing says.

“She’s been known, like Helen of Troy, to cause trouble,” Jaroslawicz said of Rihanna.

Sources said Drake, 25, sent Brown into a rage when his table sent over note that read, “I am f- -king the love of your life.” Brown had just bought the hip-hop star a pricey bottle of Champagne, sources said. Drake’s camp maintains the fight was instigated by a member of Brown’s crew.

Jaroslawicz said it’s the club’s fault.

By selling both camps booze and giving them bottle service, “you’re throwing gasoline on the flames,” Jaroslawicz said. He said he had yet to see their bar tab, “but it’s probably more than kids’ tuition for the year.”

The suit says Parker, ex-hubby of actress Eva Longoria, wasn’t sitting with either camp. But he has said he was “with my friend Chris Brown” when the problems started. “Me and my friends took some punches,” Parker said. “They started throwing bottles everywhere,” he said.

Parker, slated to play with the French team at the Summer Olympics, said he’ll be sidelined for a week as he heals with the aid of a “therapeutic” contact lens. He said that while his eye felt all right at first, “it started getting worse,” and by the time he landed in Paris to work out with the French team, “it was really hurting so I went to the ER.”

He said he’s had to wear a “therapeutic” contact lens.

“I’ll be missing the start of the French team because I can’t do anything for a week except keep the lens in and then take drops,” he said.

A representative for the club declined to comment.

Parker A $20 Million Party

DAILY NEWS
New York’s Hometown Newspaper

A $20M PARTY!

NBA star sues over Brown-Drake bash

By Barbara Ross and Tracy Connor

NBA star Tony Parker has filed a $20 million lawsuit against the Manhattan club where a bottle-throwing brawl between singers Chris Brown and Drake left him with a scratched cornea.

In court papers filed Thursday, the San Antonio Spurs guard blasted the owners of W.i.P. for letting the violent fracas erupt, saying the fight was “bad blood” over their romances with Rihanna.

Parker, who has been forced to postpone training for the Olympics because of his injury, called the basement boite a “nuisance” and claimed the owners didn’t have enough security and tried to cover up the fracas.

The basketball player, who makes $12.5 million, said he wasn’t involved in the club fight and didn’t know the “Look At Me Now” singer or Drake.

Tony Parker at Club W.i.P. before Chris Brown-Drake battle.

But he says the owners of W.i.P. and its sister party palace Greenhouse were reckless, careless and negligent in permitting Drake’s entourage and Brown’s entourage to be in the club at the same time despite known tension between the two.

After the brawl, Parker — the ex-husband of Desperate Housewives actress Eva Longoria — said he and his friends “took some punches,” then had to duck bottles being thrown through the air. He also mentions “possible gunshots.”

He said he went to the hospital the next day and learned he has a scratched cornea. It forced him to delay his training with the French Olympic basketball team.

Parker might not be the only party feeling the effects of the Brown-Drake clash.

The developers of the new Barclays Center in Brooklyn have told state authorities they are banning bottle service — the sale of full bottles of liquor — at the arena’s bars and restaurants, including Jay-Z’s 40/40 Club.

Forest City Ratner insists the ban — which doesn’t affect wine, champagne or luxury suites — was in the works before the W.i.P. violence.

With Bill Hutchinson

Tony Parker Sues; Liquor Agency Files Charges

The New York Times
New York, Saturday, June 23, 2012

Athlete Sues Club Over Brawl; Liquor Agency Files Charges

By James C. McKinley Jr.

Tony Parker, a point guard for the San Antonio Spurs, has filed a $20 million lawsuit against the W.I.P. nightclub in New York and its operators, saying his left eye was damaged during a brawl at the club last week involving R&B singer Chris Brown, the rapper Drake and their entourages.

The suit, filed in State Supreme Court in Manhattan on Thursday, says the owners of the club, on Vandam Street in SoHo, did not provide enough security guards and were negligent in allowing Mr. Brown and Drake in the club at the same time despite known tension between the two.

The lawsuit says Mr. Parker was sitting at a table apart from Mr. Brown and Drake when the fight erupted on June 14, during which his cornea was injured, hindering his ability to play basketball, he said.

The owners of the club declined to comment on the lawsuit, according to their publicist, Elizabeth Rosenblatt.

On Friday, the New York State Liquor Authority filed a total of 14 charges, dating to March 11, against W.I.P. and a club above it, Greenhouse, which belongs to the same partners. Some counts were related to the brawl, including a charge of allowing the premises “to become disorderly by suffering or permitting an altercation and/or assault to occur.” The owners have until July 11 to respond to the charges.

“This place has a history of violations, so they’re obviously looking at losing their license,” said William Crowley Jr., an agency spokesman. He added that the owners had been fined more than $15,000 in recent years.

Last week, the police shut down W.I.P. and Greenhouse.

Matt Flegenheimer contributed reporting.

Tony Parker Injured in Bar Brawl

Tony Parker is on the mend.

The NBA star is in Paris recovering from eye surgery to repair the corneal laceration he suffered in a bar brawl that, according to witnesses, broke out between Chris Brown and Drake’s tables at a New York City nightclub in the early-morning hours of June 15, Parker’s attorney Elizabeth Eilender exclusively tells E! News.

Parker is supposed to suit up for his home country of France in the Olympics next month. “We hope and expect he will be able to play, but that is between him and his doctor,” Eilender says.

She doesn’t expect Parker to be giving any interviews about the $20 Million lawsuit he filed yesterday against the W.i.P. club, which was shuttered by police on June 17. Eilender, meanwhile, tells us that even her teenage daughter “could have predicted” that the club was headed for trouble that night.

“This area of the annexed club was supposed to be even more exclusive…so you would think if they were touting it as an even more exclusive club experience, you have to expect that the people there would be people who would require additional security,” she says.

“You would think they would expect a higher level of security and discretion for the club in letting Chris Brown…and Drake.”

Parker’s lawsuit charges that the club screwed up by “sitting persons known to be hostile to each other at the same time in order to generate funds for themselves” and “in serving liquor to intoxicated persons after they were obviously intoxicated.”

The negligence complaint also states that the building that housed the club Greenhouse (W.i.P. was in the basement of the larger venue) was already considered a “public nuisance,” having been the site of other violent incidents that led to W.i.P. being denied a liquor license.

“It is believed that W.i.P. is specifically located in the basement…so as to be able to obtain a liquor license as an additional bar because it could not obtain a liquor license on its own,” the suit states.

Per the NYPD, both Greenhouse and W.i.P. were closed down, at least temporarily, because there was a history of violence reported at the address.

“And then [the club is] shocked, positively shocked, to see that [Brown and Drake] broke out into a fight over this girl,” Eilender says, referring to the speculation that there’s bad blood between the artists because of Rihanna—who Brown publicly dated and Drake is now-and-again rumored to be more than friends with.

“Come on, it’s silly,” she says. “My teenage daughter could have predicted this.”

Brown’s rep, who characterized what went down as a “brutal attack,” previously told E! News that the “Kiss Kiss” singer and his crew would fully comply with the authorities’ investigation.

Drake, meanwhile, has denied any involvement, with his rep saying that the rapper was already on his way out of the club when bottles started flying.

Elizabeth Eilender Represents NBA Star Tony Parker in Lawsuit Against NYC Nightclub

Attorney Elizabeth Eilender, of counsel to our law firm, is representing Tony Parker in a $20 million lawsuit against a New York City nightclub. Parker filed the lawsuit in Manhattan’s State Supreme Court after sustaining an eye laceration due to a brawl between Chris Brown and Drake at the W.i.P. club. Parker is currently recovering from eye surgery in Paris and is hoping to be fully recovered in a month in time for the Olympics. Parker is poised to suit up for his home country of France. In an exclusive interview with E! News, Eilender explained that due to failed security measures and additional negligence on behalf of the nightclub, Parker was unnecessarily injured. The lawsuit accuses the club of negligence on the grounds of “failing to adequately secure the premises, failing to call the police in a timely manner and failing to monitor activity on its premises.” Eilender explained in the interview that the particular area of the club that Parker was in the night he got injured was dangerous and should have had extra security. According to Eilender, “This area of the annexed club was supposed to be even more exclusive…so you would think if they were touting it as an even more exclusive club experience, you have to expect that the people there would be people who would require additional security.” Eilender continued that Chris Brown and Drake shouldn’t have even been allowed in the club, let alone be sat close to each other, as the two are notorious for being hostile with each other. According to witness accounts of the night, Drake and his entourage and Chris Brown and his entourage were sitting at tables close to each other in the exclusive section of the W.i.P club. At some point, an altercation between the two tables broke out. Allegedly, people started throwing bottles, throwing fists and there are even reports that gunshots were fired. The lawsuit alleges that in addition to failed security measures and negligently sitting the two entourages at tables next to each other, the club should also be held liable for serving alcohol to individuals who were already visibly intoxicated. In fact, W.i.P club has been the location of a number of other violent altercations that resulted in it being denied a liquor license. In sum, the club should have known that sitting the foes next to each other, serving them an excess of alcohol and providing minimal security wouldn’t have ended well.