Police have arrested one of the men responsible for the attack on V. Stiviano, the woman at the forefront of the Donald Sterling scandal.
Dominick Diorio, 40, was taken into custody from his Long Island, NY home and charged with assault as a hate crime and aggravated harassment among other charges for punching Stiviano outside the Gansevoort Hotel in New York on Sunday. Diorio confessed to Police that he took part in the assault against Stiviano that left her face bruised and swollen, as seen in pictures released to the media by her attorney Mac Nehoray.
The attack started Sunday when one of the men in the group attempted to take a picture of Stiviano as she was leaving the restaurant but Stiviano knocked the phone from his hand. The men and a female companion followed Stiviano around the corner and attacked her as she attempted to get into a cab. One of the men spat at her while another punched her in the face and called her a “F* nigger b*”. Her attorneys Nehoray and Alaleh Kamran say that the same man punched Stiviano in the face and yelled ‘I am going to slaughter you’.
New York Police Department Detective Brian Sessa told Reuters that the investigation is ongoing. The other assailants in the group have not been taken into custody for questioning.
Donald Sterling’s ex-girlfriend V. Stiviano has been in the media lately after conversations of Sterling asking her not to bring minorities to Clippers games or associate with Magic Johnson were leaked to TMZ.com. Sterling has sued the NBA for $1 billion for damages and to reverse their decisions to ban him for life and force him to sell his ownership of the Clippers. Recently, Sterling’s ex-wife Shelly Sterling agreed to sell her stake in the team for $2 billion to former Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer.
Earlier this week, Maiko Maya King another ex-girlfriend of Sterling slapped him with a lawsuit alleging that he demanded sexual favors while she was providing caretaking services. Attorney Bobby Samini, who is representing Donald Sterling, called the accusations “completely baseless.”