AT ODDS: Courtney Fullilove is suing Marshall Feiring. (
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A big-wheel Manhattan lawyer with an apparent beef against cyclists attacked a Wesleyan history professor for riding on a bike path near his Central Park West home, she claims in a lawsuit.
Marshall Feiring, a trust and estates attorney at a white-shoe Manhattan firm, walked up to Courtney Fullilove while she was riding in the park near West 108th Street, filings say.
Fullilove swerved to get around him, but Feiring, 60, grabbed the “heavy-link chain used for locking her bicycle” that was wrapped around her torso, “pulling her from her bicycle and slamming her forcefully to the ground,” the suit says.
Fullilove was wearing a helmet, but the impact was so great, she suffered “a severe concussion, memory loss, psychological trauma, fatigue, loss of vision, recurrent disabling headaches, spinal derangement” and injuries to her face and hip.
The reason for the alleged attack is unknown, but Fullilove’s lawyer, Steven Vaccaro, suggested Feiring might have been inspired by anti-bike bias.
“The Bloomberg administration’s efforts to encourage cycling have, unfortunately, inspired in some a generalized resentment towards cyclists,” Vaccaro wrote in a letter to Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr.
The DA is prosecuting Feiring for misdemeanor assault and harassment for the June 13 incident.
Vaccaro declined to comment, but in his letter, he urged the DA to throw the book at Feiring for the “savage attack.”
And while his client has no memory of the incident because of head trauma, “five bystanders witnessed the assault” and gave statements to police, Vaccaro said.
Fullilove, 36, filed suit against Feiring earlier this week, seeking unspecified money damages.
It says that her injuries have forced her to take a leave of absence, and could cost her a chance at tenure.
She also claims in the suit that her “bicycle, helmet and other personal property were damaged due to the crash.”
Feiring, a former lawyer for the IRS, referred a call for comment to his attorney, Sanford Talkin.
Talkin said his client has a very different account of the incident.
“We look forward to defending this in court,” he said.