NY Post: Lawsuit vs. CIPRIANI

January 18, 2009

What a meatball!

The son of embattled restaurateur Giuseppe Cipriani served up a knuckle sandwich outside a ritzy Chelsea nightclub – punching out a limo driver, police and the chauffeur said.

They said Ignazio Cipriani, 20, was drunk and mouthing off to doormen because they wouldn’t let him into 1Oak on Dec. 13.

Chauffeur Bajram Spahijoska, 31, said he had been waiting outside for a client and was bringing bouncers coffee and hot chocolate at 2:15 a.m. when Cipriani began raising hell.

“He was drunk and screaming,” he said. “The bouncers said: ‘Don’t pay that guy any mind. He’s been like that for 15 minutes.’

“I walked away from him, and he went around to the other side and sucker-punched me, and I fell down.”

The driver said Cipriani, who works for the family’s restaurant business, and his pal, Luca Tognozzi, 20, came after him while he was down.

“My head was part way under a car, and I opened one eye and saw two guys kicking me.”

Spahijoska suffered a broken nose and thumb.

The bouncers grabbed Cipriani and Tognozzi and called cops. The two were charged with third-degree assault.

Cipriani did nothing illegal, said his lawyer, Joseph DiBlasi.

“This is nothing more than a group of young people pushing and shoving in front of a nightclub. We don’t see a crime here at all,” he said.

The driver, who is married and has a newborn, said he hasn’t been able to work for three weeks because of his injuries.