A New York City cabbie and a brunette makeup model got into a knock-down, drag-out fight over which route to take — and they are still battling one year later.
The Only-in-New-York marathon of bad will — which includes cross-allegations of scratching, cursing and at least one taunt of “How many men have you had between your legs” — began February 23, 2016 at East 27th Street and Madison Avenue.
That’s where Erin Cassidy — a 32-year-old who lives near there, and who has posed for Maybelline and Macy’s — hailed a taxi driven by Egyptian-born Ahmed El Sherif, according to court papers.
The two hadn’t progressed more than a couple blocks before they began arguing over which street to take, and the cabbie pulled over, according to police sources.
“Stupid little b—!” the model told cops her cabbie yelled at her.
“How many men have you had between your legs?” she told cops he taunted, according to police sources.
A tussle ensued, spilling out onto the sidewalk. El Sherif then called 911, and a pair of arriving cops were regaled with a he-said, she-said saga.
Cassidy claimed that El Sherif had dragged her out of his taxi, bruising her arm. El Sherif protested that it was his passenger who’d gotten physical, in fact scratching his right hand with her fingernails.
Cops sided with the model, and El Sherif was charged with misdemeanor assault.
But eight months later, prosecutors dropped the charges — and now, the cabbie is reviving his insistence that he was the real victim, this time in a new Manhattan Supreme Court lawsuit.
Cassidy had scratched him on his right hand so hard, she left marks, El Sherif says in his suit.
Despite that, arriving cops “ridiculed [him] for calling cops on a woman even though [she] had assaulted him and broke his skin,” he says in his suit.
“The police also refused to arrest Erin Cassidy because she was a white female and he appeared to be an Arabic or Muslim male,” El Sharif’s suit adds.
After his charges were dropped, El Sharif filed a complaint with the Internal Affairs department — resulting in letters of discipline being placed in both officers’ files, the lawsuit says.
El Sherif’s suit seeks $750,000 in damages. He declined to comment through his attorney Ronald P. Hart.
Cassidy also declined to comment.
A city Law Department spokesman said the complaint will be reviewed.
Additional reporting by Elizabeth Rosner
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