The much-younger ex-wife of millionaire “Linen King” George Bardwil testified through tears at his Manhattan assault trial Thursday that she was terrified for her life and that the enraged mogul was going to kill her when he allegedly slammed her head against the floor at his posh Turtle Bay pad in 2012.
Emiko Bardwil, 28, was already divorced from 62-year-old George Bardwil when they got into a heated fight on May 9, 2012 after she refused to be intimate with him, she said.
He dragged her to the floor by her hair, straddled her and bounced her head against the hardwood floor, calling her a “whore,” she testified.
“I was sure I was going to die right there,” the Quebec, Canada, native sobbed on the stand. “Please don’t kill me, I have my family, my parents, but he just kept saying ‘I’m going to kill you.’ ”
Emiko, who was staying with George while she recovered from dental surgery, managed to escape and run into the street barefoot in leopard-print pajamas to call 911, she said.
Doctors needed three surgical staples to close a bloody gash on the back of her head, she said.
Wearing a stunning green dress, the aspiring designer, now remarried and six months’ pregnant, told jurors that the pair divorced because George was always falsely accusing her of stealing from him.
On cross-examination, George’s defense lawyer, Michael Bachner, blasted Emiko as a gold-digging liar who falsely claimed the mogul beat her to score a fat payout. He challenged her version of events.
“Isn’t it true that Mr. Bardwil got upset and followed you and you tripped backward and hit the side of your head on the Corian counter and fell on your elbow?”
“No,” she said, clutching her swollen tummy.
Bachner also asked Emiko if she met CEO Stephen Yohay, 64, on the dating site Sugardaddy.com. before meeting Bardwil.
She admitted that the CEO flew her to New York in 2006 but claimed they met on a legitimate dating site. Bardwil’s two daughters and first ex-wife sat in the gallery to show their support.
“I have known her and been in touch with her since I met her when she was 19 and she’s a very lovely human being,” Yohan said, refusing to comment on whether the two had an affair.
She filed a $15 million civil suit against Bardwil claiming she endured “horrific acts of violence and intimidation” during their marriage.
When prosecutors asked why she filed the suit, she said she deserved some kind of compensation for what he did to her.