NEW YORK-Supermodel Naomi
Campbell was arrested at her Park Avenue home on Thursday and charged with
assaulting her housekeeper with a cell phone, New York City police
said.
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Supermodel Naomi Campbell
leaves the Manhattan Criminal Court after being arraigned on assault
charges in New York March 30, 2006. (Keith Bedford/Reuters)
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Campbell, who was
later released, could face up to seven years in prison after she was charged
with second degree assault for throwing a cell phone at housekeeper Ana
Scolavino. Police said it struck her on the back of the head and opened a cut
that needed four staples.
Campbell's lawyer, David Breitbart, said the maid's injury was
self-inflicted. He added that Scolavino had been working for Campbell for two to
three months and was being fired because several items were missing from the
house. "When this happened this morning, all hell broke loose," he said.
Campbell was ordered to return to court on June 27.
Prosecutors asked the judge to order Campbell to surrender her passport but
the request was denied after Breitbart said she was scheduled to fly to West
Africa on Friday to do some charity work with Nelson Mandela.
Campbell, still one of the biggest names in fashion at the age of 35, was
fingerprinted and photographed at a police station and arrived at Manhattan
Criminal Court ahead of her arraignment wearing a black baseball hat, a white
fur poncho and sunglasses. Her hands were cuffed behind her back.
"The police have been really nice. They are treating me great," she told
reporters.
Campbell's agent, Amanda Silverman, said in a statement: "We believe this is
a case of retaliation, because Naomi had fired her housekeeper earlier this
morning. We are confident the courts will see it the same way."
'MOST RECOGNIZED MODEL'
Prosecutors asked Judge Richard Weinberg to set bail at $3,500, a figure
Breitbart scoffed at as "unsightly" for the high profile model, who was released
without bail.
"She is not a risk of flight," said Breitbart. "She is the most recognized
model in the world."
It was not the first time the British-born Campbell has had troubles with the
law -- in February 2000 she pleaded guilty in a Canadian court to assaulting her
former assistant, and was given an absolute discharge, meaning her record was
cleared.
After that incident, in which she assaulted her assistant Georgina Galanis
with a telephone, she blamed her fiery temper on lingering resentment toward her
father for abandoning her as a child.
Campbell, who grew up in South London, said that her father abandoned the
family before she was born and her mother was often gone because she worked long
hours to send her daughter to prestigious schools to study singing, drama and
ballet.
"I've not always displayed my anger in the appropriate time," she said in a
2000 TV interview in which she said she had attended a U.S. clinic to help
manage her anger. "It's a manifestation of a deeper issue, I think. And that, to
me, I think is based on insecurity, self-esteem and loneliness."
Campbell has also admitted to drug use in the past. In 2004 she won a British
court battle with a tabloid newspaper that was found to have invaded her privacy
by running a story saying, correctly, that she had visited Narcotics Anonymous.
Spotted on the streets of London's Covent Garden when she was 15, Campbell
was the first black model to appear on covers of the French and British editions
of Vogue magazine. Nearly 20 years later she remains one of the biggest names in
fashion.
She has also acted in several movies, tried her hand at singing and launched
her own cosmetics range. She also published a ghostwritten novel called "Swan,"
about a supermodel who is blackmailed.