David Wells is suing his sucker-puncher – claiming the pint-sized, butter knife-wielding Yonkers bartender hurt him, frightened him and caused him permanent injury during a fracas at an Upper East Side diner last September.
In a lawsuit filed yesterday in Manhattan Supreme Court, Wells, 40, seeks an unspecified amount of damages from Rocco Graziosa, 28 convicted earlier this year on assault charges in the diner dust-up.
What is specified – albeit in the legalese common to such lawsuits – is just how much harm the hulking, 6-foot-3, 240-pound Yankee hurler claims the 5-foot-6 Graziosa did to him.
Graziosa “assaulted plaintiff by drawing a knife, and swinging it back and forth in the direction of the plaintiff and punched the plaintiff in the face with a closed fist,” the lawsuit claims. The suit does not mention that the knife in question was a butter knife.
“As a result of the foregoing, plaintiff did incur grievous bodily harm, fright, fear, apprehension, and serious and permanent injuries and did incur numerous medical expenses,” the suit continues.
Wells’ lawyer, Mel Sachs, stressed Wells is no longer afraid of Graziosa.
“He’s no longer suffering fear of this individual, however he was afraid at the time,” Sachs said. Wells declined, through Sachs, to comment,
As to the permanent injuries, Sachs said that referred to the two front teeth Graziosa knocked out of Wells’ mouth.
Graziosa was sentenced in January to 45 days in jail, but remains out on $10,000 bail while he appeals the conviction.