Ten months after his Hollywood arrest, the man who played Jack Bauer is telling a judge the Uber driver suing him for assault was the real danger.
The California fight over Kiefer Sutherland’s January ride took a sharp turn this week, when his legal team asked a judge to throw out the Uber driver’s assault lawsuit, per TMZ, and flipped the story on its head.
Sutherland, 59, now says any physical action he took was justified because he believed the driver “posed an immediate threat to him.” The filing denies the driver’s allegations, including that Sutherland acted recklessly and that the driver suffered any injuries at all. It calls the suit groundless and brought in bad faith, argues that any emotional distress the driver claims stems from pre-existing or concurrent psychological conditions, and denies that Sutherland acted with malice. The ask is blunt: “dismiss the complaint with prejudice.“
That is a long way from the story police told in January. Officers responded just after midnight on January 12 to a call near Sunset Boulevard and Fairfax Avenue in Hollywood. The LAPD said the suspect “physically assaulted the driver (the victim), and made criminal threats toward the victim,” per Fox News. Sutherland was arrested on suspicion of felony criminal threats and released the same day on a $50,000 bond.
The driver’s lawsuit, filed in June, goes further. He claims the actor was “visibly intoxicated” when he got in the car, grew agitated when the driver, who primarily speaks Russian and Armenian, struggled to understand him, and threatened to kill him. He alleges Sutherland hit him repeatedly with closed fists while the car was moving, put him in a chokehold, and followed him down the street making threats after he jumped out and ran. He says dashcam footage captured at least part of it. He is suing for assault and battery, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and negligence, and seeks punitive damages.
Both Sides Are Dug In
Sutherland’s camp has never budged. Back in June, attorney Andrew Brettler said the driver “refused to stop the vehicle despite repeated requests to do so,” “declined medical attention at the scene,” and has made “consistent attempts to embellish and exaggerate his claims of distress and injury.” ABC News reported at the time that there were no injuries that required medical treatment in the incident. The driver’s side has drawn its own line. His attorney, Mitra Sabouri, called him “a private citizen who did not seek public attention” and said the dashcam footage will not be released “out of respect for his privacy.” On the criminal side, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office said in March that “No charges have been filed as of now” while it reviewed newly submitted evidence. No public charging decision has surfaced since.
It is not Sutherland’s first brush with an assault case. In 2009, he was charged with third-degree assault after headbutting designer Jack McCollough following the Met Gala. That charge was dropped after the two issued a joint statement saying they had settled their differences.
Jack Bauer made a career out of stopping threats. Kiefer Sutherland is now asking a judge to believe he was the one facing one.
