A second victim of an investment banker charged with punching and pushing a group of Brooklyn Pride attendees says her concussion and other injuries have only worsened since the-caught-on video clash.
“It was so scary. It was just so scary and we didn’t know why it was happening,” the woman, who asked to be identified only as Morgan, told the Daily News in an exclusive interview. “We were just sitting on this corner saying, ‘Happy Pride.’ We weren’t trying to start a fight.”
Several of Morgan’s friends were wearing keffiyeh headscarves, symbols of support for Palestine, with tensions over the Israeli-Gaza conflict fueling the clash.
The criminal complaint charging Jonathan Kaye with two counts each of assault, harassment and menacing says he threw Morgan to the ground, causing her to hit her head against the ground, about 10:55 p.m. June 8. Nobody else has been charged in the case.
Kaye “was wrongly charged, based on a curated video published by professional agitators seeking to destroy him professionally and personally,” one of Kaye’s attorneys, Danya Perry, said in a statement Tuesday. “This was a vicious, hate-fueled group attack … He was entitled to defend himself.”
“Mr. Kaye, a middle-aged Jewish man with no history of violence or aggression, was terrorized, assaulted, and surrounded by a group of unruly antisemitic protesters,” Perry said in an earlier statement on Monday. Perry says her client was doused with two liquids and that agitators “hurled antisemitic slurs at him.”
“Terrified and injured, Mr. Kaye managed to act in self-defense to escape the situation and return safely to his family,” she added.
No slurs can be heard in the videos that have so far publicly emerged.
“None of that happened at all. There were Jewish people with us,” Morgan told The News. “There was no way to know he was Jewish as he was walking by and yelling at us.”
Morgan suffered substantial pain, a concussion and bruising, according to the complaint against Kaye. She told The News she also suffered a slipped disk in her back.
Kaye was released without bail after being arraigned in Brooklyn Criminal Court Monday. He surrendered to cops to face charges earlier in the day. His lawyers are claiming he acted in self defense.
Video obtained by the Daily News shows the attack against Morgan and the other victim.
It begins with Kaye walking towards Morgan’s group of friends on the Park Slope street.
“I said you’re useful idiots,” Kaye told them.
“What does that mean?” a voice can be heard asking and just as Kaye is about to respond, the video shows water splashes onto him.
As Kaye begins to head into the crowd one woman stands in front of him holding her hands up trying to prevent him from going any further and Kaye can be seen shoving her.
Cries of shock and protest can be heard and a splash of red liquid lands on Kaye.
“You f—ing threw s–t on me? Really?” Kaye says.
Someone in the group tosses more Gatorade from a bottle onto Kaye and he is shown lunging and chasing a person to the corner of Fifth Ave. and rd St., then falling on the ground.
“Good, it serves you right. Why would you do that?” a voice can be heard saying.
Kaye then hurtles toward a man standing near a street sign on the corner and can be seen pushing him.
“What the f–k are you doing?” the man asks as several others get involved, trying to pull Kaye away.
Next Kaye turns around and is shown shoving Morgan to the ground, where she lands on her back inches from a car driving by as she reaches for her head.
“I didn’t remember him pushing me or anything,” said Morgan. “I have a faint memory of wheels passing by my head … It felt like a dream sequence in a movie.”
A police officer comes running over, yelling “Stop!” repeatedly.
Then Kaye, as seen in a previously released video that went viral, punches a woman in the face so hard she reels backwards and collapses.
The first victim to come forward, identifying herself as Micah P., spoke to NBC 4 New York three days after the attack. She said after she splashed Kaye with water he punched her, breaking her nose in four places and causing her to fall to the ground.
After Micah is hit, a man on the corner can be seen pointing to Kaye, trying to direct the officer’s attention towards the banker, but Kaye walks away.
NBC 4 New York said someone claiming to represent Kaye contacted them and directed them to a tabloid story claiming Micah and her group of friends instigated the incident and used antisemitic slurs, which Micah denied.
Morgan says in the moments after the attack she didn’t fully feel the impact of the fall but three weeks later she is in pain and feeling the effects of her head injury.
“This week has been harder almost than the first few days after the assault,” she said. “Definitely this week my back has been in so much pain across my shoulders and down the rest of my back and today my head was definitely very scattered — I felt more of my concussion.”
“It’s starting to become unmanageable,” she said of the pain in her back. “Once it starts I don’t rest. It starts going down my arms and into my wrists and hands.”
Ron Kuby, the lawyer for both victims, said justice had been delayed and diluted.
“This happened the first week of Pride month,” Kuby told The News. “Now the month is over.”
“Premium concierge service will not make him a better person,” said Kuby of Kaye.
Kuby also had criticism of the officer on scene.
“There was a cop right there who did absolutely nothing,” said the lawyer. “He did nothing to catch the assailant.”
Kuby also noted the officer let Micah fall to the ground though the video showed he was standing right behind her and reached out his hands for a moment.
When asked by a reporter why the officer allowed Kaye to walk away, an NYPD spokesperson said the cop was mobbed by people at the scene.
“The officer first observed the incident when he saw the woman on the ground and went to render aid to include calling an ambulance,” said the spokesperson, without indicating if they were referring to Micah or Morgan, and refusing to clarify.
“At this time, the crowd surrounded the officer and he called for assistance for crowd control. During this time, the aided woman left with friends.”
Morgan said she and Micah stayed in the area, walking about 20 feet away, and talked over what happened for about a half hour before going to the emergency room. She also said no additional police or medics arrived.
When asked why no mention of the officer’s presence was made to press as the NYPD discussed the case in the days after the assault, the spokesperson did not give any additional information.
With Pride festivities over the weekend, Morgan said Friday she was physically in pain, emotionally raw, and unable to participate fully.
“Today has been really hard knowing that this weekend is World Pride in New York and physically I’m not able to stand for long periods of time. I get nervous in crowds. I know wherever I go I have to have access to seating,” said Morgan.
After saying she would not file a police report over the vicious punch, Micah came forward to lodge a complaint with the NYPD on June 12.
Still, Morgan and Micah don’t want to see Kaye jailed but instead undergo anger management.
“We still feel very adamant that he not go to jail in this situation,” said Morgan. “Some kind of transformative reform is important to both of us.”
At the time of the assaults Kaye was employed by Moelis & Co., a Manhattan investment bank, as a managing director who leads the global business services franchise.
Shortly after the first video became public, Kaye went on leave and is now gone from the job.
“Jonathan Kaye has resigned and is no longer with the Firm,” a Moelis spokesperson told The News.
Kaye plead not guilty and is due back in court Aug. 23.
After his arraignment in Brooklyn Criminal Court Monday, as Kaye and his lawyer Joan Illuzzi walked outside, a group of people began to follow the pair, shouting.
“We were assaulted,” Kaye said outside the courthouse after the fracas. “They threw coffee on me and punched my lawyer in the back.”
Police said neither Kaye nor Illuzzi have filed a complaint over the clash outside court.