Kings forwards Matt Barnes and DeMarcus Cousins were recently sued after a nightclub incident in New York City on Monday. According to the New York Daily News, the NYPD is close to arresting Barnes for his role in the incident at the Avenue Nightclub on Monday night.
“They’ve got enough to charge Barnes with an assault on a woman,” a police source told the paper. “It will probably be a misdemeanor assault on one of the females who was pushed or choked or sustained some sort of injury. She’s obviously cooperating.”
Cousins will likely not be charged, according to the Daily News. Jasmine Besiso and Myrone Powell filed a federal lawsuit against the two Sacramento Kings on Thursday, and Besiso claims Barnes choked her into unconsciousness.
Powell’s lawyer Michael Lamonsoff didn’t mince words when he talked about Cousins’ role in the incident.
“An arrest of Barnes would be one step towards the justice that should be served for his actions in that club that night,” Lamonsoff said Friday. “This gentleman obviously has an anger management problem.”
“The failure to immediately arrest Cousins is a mistake,” he added. “There’s ample evidence of his role in the brutal assault on this couple. His actions were just as bad as those of Barnes.”
Lamonsoff says that Cousins punched his client in the side of the head, and was then further hit by Barnes and members of his larger entourage. Barnes’ lawyer Alex Spiro declined to comment.
No discipline from the team or the league for either of the two players has been announced, but should either be arrested that would seem inevitable. The team and the league have also not commented on the situation, presumably waiting for it to further develop.