He’s blaming his victim — but can’t remember why.
The 6-foot-1, 210-pound bruiser who was caught on video repeatedly smashing the head of an off-duty cop claimed Monday that “something” had provoked the merciless attack outside a Queens diner.
A lawyer for Hayden Holder, 29, said his client and Sgt. Mohamed Deen “were both very, very intoxicated” during a confrontation at a nightclub shortly before the beating early Sunday.
“They were outside the club. He does not remember this,” said the lawyer, Andrew Worgan. “Something provoked him. My client doesn’t remember this.”
Worgan even also incredibly suggested Deen — who is seen on the video getting sucker-punched by Holder — started the fight.
“Supposedly, there is another video from outside the club that shows the beginning of the incident,” Worgan said. “The one online shows the end, not the beginning.”
A law-enforcement source blasted the lawyer’s comments as “bulls–t,” insisting that Holder was sober when he was busted while trying to run away from the violence in front of St. John’s Express restaurant in South Richmond Hill.
“Holder was not drunk,” the source said. “When he was brought into the precinct, he was completely lucid and aware of his surroundings.”
Another source said Deen — who was put into a medically induced coma after the attack — was expected to recover from his injuries.
“He was in critical [condition], but now he’s been stabilized,” the source said. “It looks like he’s going to be OK.”
But, the source noted, that Deen’s head “looks lopsided” from bruises and swelling. Another source said Deen showed progress by moving his leg.
Police Commissioner Ray Kelly, who visited Deen at Jamaica Hospital Sunday night, said the 18-year NYPD veteran suffered multiple fractures to his face and a brain hemorrhage.
Kelly said doctors had planned to try to take Deen off a ventilator and start easing him out of the coma on Monday. It was unclear if that happened.
Deen’s wife, Ashley Raghoo-Deen, 26, declined to comment as cops escorted her and several family members out of Jamaica Hospital Monday evening.
The couple got married in August in Cancun, and Raghoo-Dean’s since-removed Facebook page showed her wearing her wedding gown and being hoisted into the air by her hubby on the beach.
Holder, who works as a mechanic, was ordered held without bail and placed on suicide watch after being arraigned Monday in Queens Criminal Court on upgraded charges of attempted murder and assault.
He said nothing in court, wearing a hospital gown tucked into blue sweat pants. He had a large bandage on his right hand and forearm, which prosecutors said he injured when he fell onto Deen during the attack.
The courtroom was packed with uniformed and plainclothes cops in a show of support for their colleague, who’s assigned to the 32nd Precinct in Harlem.
One source described Deen as a “very good guy” who “likes to work out in the precinct gym.”
“He’s into working out but his legs are thin. We joke around with him and call him ‘chicken legs,’” the source added.
Paul Capotosto, an official with the Sergeants Benevolent Association, said he was disgusted by the video of Deen’s beating, on which the cameraman is heard laughing and screaming, “That n—a’s dead!”
“It’s actually painful to watch, seeing that no one actually came to his aid,” Capotosto said.
“I don’t’ know what the mind-set was of the people that were there — if they were part of it, if they were afraid of this person — but it’s difficult to watch.”
Additional reporting by Larry Celona, Lia Eustachewich and Bob Fredericks