The Yonkers mayor claims he never visited a strip club or received a lap dance from “Sassy.” He is suing the strip-club owner, also the publisher of the Westchester Guardian, a weekly newspaper that printed the allegations. -db
The Journal News
October 8, 2010
By Timothy O-Connor
A stripper named Sassy sits at the center of a lawsuit that pits strip-club owner Sam Zherka against the mayor of Yonkers.
Zherka’s newspaper, The Westchester Guardian, published an article on the eve of the 2007 election that called Mayor Phil Amicone a “hypocrite” who “frequents strip clubs” and received a lap dance from “a girl by the name of Sassy.”
The source for the article written by Richard Blassberg, the former editor of the Guardian, was Zherka, who owns the V.I.P. Club in Manhattan in addition to publishing the weekly newspaper.
Amicone sued Zherka and the newspaper for libel in a lawsuit that is a counter claim to Blassberg’s lawsuit against Amicone. Blassberg’s lawsuit claims that Amicone had Guardian newspaper boxes removed and newspaper distributors harassed in Yonkers because the newspaper was sharply critical of him.
Both lawsuits are being tried in one trial in U.S. District Court before Judge Cathy Seibel.
On Thursday, Zherka took the stand to say that Amicone was in his strip club a few weeks after they met at a dinner in early 2007 where Amicone honored Zherka with an integrity award and spoke glowingly of him.
That testimony came a day after Amicone not only denied being in Zherka’s strip club but also denied ever stepping foot in any strip club in his life.
He also said he never gave Zherka any award and never offered him any public words of praise. He said he only stopped by the function to be introduced to Zherka and spoke with him for two minutes.
Zherka called the mayor a liar.
“Phil Amicone took this stand and lied,” Zherka said before Seibel ordered the comment stricken from the record.
Zherka said he never saw Amicone at the club, but that a manager and hostess told him Amicone had been in the club.
Zherka had been more expansive about the alleged trip during a deposition taken before the trial and referenced in court papers. In that deposition, Zherka said Sassy — whose real name he did not know — gave Amicone the lap dance and that Amicone didn’t buy a drink. Zherka said in the deposition that Amicone was “cheap.”
“He didn’t spend any money,” Zherka said. “He didn’t even pay her the $20 lap dance. So, it was kind of a funny thing.”
Amicone said his wife was “devastated ” by the article. He never called Zherka and asked for a retraction, he said, because he knew he wouldn’t get one.
“He knew he lied,” Amicone said. “He didn’t need me to tell him that.
Testimony ended Thursday afternoon. Jury deliberations are expected to begin Tuesday.
Blassberg is seeking at least $10 million from Amicone and the city. Amicone’s counter-suit does not name a dollar amount.
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