The ex-nightclub owner who broke a European prince’s jaw with one punch told Manhattan prosecutors today that he was the real victim of a barroom brawl that also injured three of the royal’s pals.
“We were here to tell the truth, to make sure the DA’s office knows that Adam Hock is the real victim. Mr. Hock was the victim of the altercation,” said Sal Strazzullo, Hock’s lawyer, who wants the four aristocrats charged with assault with a deadly weapon.
The beefy Hock, 47, was charged with four counts of assault for allegedly decking Monaco Prince Pierre Casiraghi, 24; Paris Hilton-ex Stavros Niarchos, 26; Diego Marroquin, 33; and Vladimir Restoin Roitfeld, 27, during a bloody brawl early Feb. 18 at the Double Seven in the Meatpacking District.
Hock had little to say before he and Strazzullo met for 90 minutes with the assistant DA who will be prosecuting the case.
“Good,” he replied when asked how he felt.
“It’s getting better,” he said of his left shoulder, which was bruised when Roitfeld allegedly slugged him with a 1.5 liter magnum bottle of Grey Goose vodka.
Last week, the lawyer vowed to bring witnesses and private investigators to the sitdown.
Instead, just lawyer and client appeared.
Strazzullo lashed out at Casiraghi and his jet-setting party pals.
“Just because you’re a prince doesn’t mean that you’re immune to being an aggressor. They don’t have the best character or credibility,” he said.
Strazzullo said Hock – the former owner of the Hawaiian Tropic Zone in Times Square – did most of the talking.
“Mr Hock told the truth. I spoke way less than Mr. Hock did,” he said.
He also said video surveillance backs his client’s story, and vowed to produce witnesses who weren’t with Hock and his party of supermodels who will also testify they saw Hock being struck.
“They have the surveillance tape, and it shows Mr. Hock being attacked,” he said of the DA’s office.