Kevin Meaney arrested and charged for elbowing a woman at airport
Stand up comedian Kevin Meaney, who was arrested at a New York City airport and charged with assault for elbowing a woman in the chest, will not be prosecuted, the Queens District Attorney’s Office said on Wednesday.
Meaney, 58, was accused of walking towards the 29-year-old woman at John F. Kennedy International Airport on Tuesday evening and elbowing her, the Port Authority Police Department said.
But prosecutors reviewed video footage of the event and determined the two simply bumped into each other, a spokeswoman for the Queens District Attorney’s Office said. The woman then boarded a flight out of the country before being interviewed by police, the spokeswoman said.
Meaney, who lives in New York City, was in jail on Wednesday awaiting arraignment for misdemeanour assault, police said. It was unclear if he was still in police custody by Wednesday evening.
Meaney and the woman, who is from Grand Forks, North Dakota, did not know each other and it was not clear what led to the incident, police said. Meaney and the woman had been due to leave the airport on different flights, police said.
Meaney, who has appeared on various televised comedy specials and late-night talk shows and acted in the musical “Hairspray” on Broadway for several years, could not be reached for comment. It was not clear whether he had a lawyer.
(Reporting by Jonathan Allen an
