2 lawyers charged after courthouse deposition erupts into fistfight
Two lawyers were charged with simple assault after a Wednesday afternoon deposition at a New Jersey courthouse erupted into a fistfight.
Witnesses heard a commotion in a conference room in the Bergen County Courthouse before more than a dozen sheriff’s officers arrived to break up the battling attorneys, Costantino Fragale, 42, and Jeffrey Mandel, 43, reports the Record. One lawyer had a visibly bloddied face.
“There were verbal arguments, and there was a fight,” sheriff’s spokesman Anthony Cureton told the newspaper.
Reached by the Record, Mandel described the incident as “just an altercation” and said it was Fragale whose face was bloodied.
“I had a smudge mark on the top of my head and my glasses came off but that was it,” Mandel said. He declined to say what sparked the altercation, telling the newspaper “The other attorney will have to answer those questions. I understand that I am not going to be responsible for this, but we will see.”
Fragale did not immediately respond to the Record’s request for comment.
Both lawyers were released without bail following the incident.
Hat tip: New Jersey Advance Media
See also:
ABAJournal.com: “Biff! Bam! Wallop! 2 Lawyers Duke it Out in Oregon Courthouse”
