She says the Yankee clipped her.
A Puerto Rican TV beauty accused former Bronx Bomber Bernie Williams of elbowing her in the face when she tried to photograph him in a crowded Puerto Rico party spot.
Williams’ accuser, Jeanie Carrión, filed charges Thursday over the incident, which is being investigated by police in Puerto Rico.
Williams insists elements of Carrión’s story are wrong – and he’s supported by the owner of Shannan’s Pub, who says his security staff reported that Carrión shook down Williams for $300 in the Wednesday-night incident.
“The only thing I can say is that this is a very unfortunate incident,” Williams said in Miami yesterday.
“There’s a part of me that wants to say my side of the facts, but I think I’m going to let the process take its course,” Williams said, adding that he hopes the matter “will be resolved sooner or later.”
After helping Puerto Rico’s baseball team defeat the Netherlands in the World Baseball Classic Wednesday, Williams went that night to Shannan’s, in Guaynabo, just south of the Puerto Rican capital of San Juan.
Williams, known for his guitar playing, showed up at the nightspot hoping to lay down some riffs with the pub’s band, said pub owner Bill Duggan.
The alleged assault took place in the pub’s main area, which Duggan said was crowded that night with 1,200 people.
“Evidently, Bernie was out there amongst the crowd, and this girl was chasing him to take pictures of him with her camera,” said Duggan, who did not witness the incident. “He kept telling her, ‘I don’t want pictures. No pictures.’
“Eventually he got upset, and he went to grab the camera from her,” Duggan told The Post. “He supposedly hit her with his elbow.”
After taking Carrión’s camera, Williams went outside and reported the incident to a security guard, Duggan said.
“My security tells me she came out and she was bitching and complaining,” Duggan said. “She looked at him and said, ‘Give me $300, and we’ll forget all about it.’ He gave her $300 and gave her camera back.”
Nonetheless, Carrión went to police.
Carrión’s report that Williams hit her in the face was front-page news yesterday in Puerto Rico. The newspaper Primera Hora pictured what looked like a slight injury to the inside of Carrión’s lower lip.
Carrión told the newspaper that a local TV reporter, José Figueroa, introduced her to Williams in the pub. She said that as she tried to snap a picture of Williams with Figueroa, Williams shoved her and grabbed her camera.
She called his actions “crazy,” and made no mention to the paper of the $300.
Williams, 40, last played for the Yankees in 2006, but has never formally retired.