Police have arrested and charged the former senior banker who resigned from the boutique firm Moelis & Co. after a video of him beating a woman in Brooklyn went viral in June.
Jonathan Kaye, 52, a former Moelis executive, was charged Monday with second- and third-degree assault, New York police told CBS MoneyWatch.
The charges stem from an incident at a Brooklyn Pride event on June 8 that was captured on video and widely shared on social media. It showed Kaye appearing to punch a woman, causing her to fall to the ground. The 38-year-old woman later filed a police report, alleging that the punch left her with a broken nose, cuts and a black eye. She also said she lost consciousness after falling to the ground, the report said.
Representatives for Kaye, who is Jewish, offered their perspective on the altercation Monday after charges were filed. They allege that Kaye walked past a group of pro-Palestinian supporters who shouted anti-Semitic remarks and threw liquids at him. He “was surrounded, pushed to the ground and further assaulted,” a Kaye spokesperson told CBS MoneyWatch.
The blow he delivered to the 38-year-old woman, which was captured on video, was in “self-defense,” according to his spokesmen.
According to Kaye's attorney Danya Perry, he was “terrorized, attacked and surrounded by a group of unruly anti-Semitic protesters” and the events leading up to the altercation were not captured on the widely shared video.
“…Agitators formed a circle around him, doused him with two unknown liquids, pushed him to the ground and shouted anti-Semitic insults at him. Terrified and injured, Mr. Kaye managed to act in self-defense to escape the situation and return safely to his family,” Perry said in a statement.
