Attorney: No Merit To Assault Claims In Lawsuit Against John Franco
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- An attorney on Sunday denied claims in a lawsuit alleging that Mets legend John Franco and his wife assaulted the woman who was in charge of their estate sale.
The lawsuit, filed by Wendy King and detailed Sunday in a New York Post report, claimed that Franco glared at her menacingly and kept her trapped for 15 minutes, as his wife screamed and accused her of theft.
The suit went on to claim that Franco hurled an autographed baseball at the wall in order to scare King, the newspaper reported.
But Franco's attorney, Wayne Lonstein, said the claims were not true and in fact, King still owes the Francos money for the sale.
"There's no validity whatsoever to these claims other than the claim that the Francos will be making that they're owed about $30,000," Lonstein told 1010 WINS.
King was in charge of the sale of personal items from the Francos' Staten Island home, from Mets memorabilia to video arcade games and oil paintings -- and a Harley-Davidson Franco was given to mark his 400th save, the newspaper reported. The lawsuit said King told Franco's wife, Rose, that she should not have interfered with the sale of some items – at which point Rose Franco allegedly began screaming at her and calling her a thief, the paper reported.
King also accused Rose Franco of using her husband's fame to get the Staten Island District Attorney's office to begin a theft probe, the paper reported.
But Lonstein said again King owes the Francos money and said she is creating a diversion.
"Numerous witnesses other than the Francos indicated that none of this happened and these are credible witnesses," Lonstein told 1010 WINS. "If you go take a look at the public record as I've done over the last year, you might find a financial reason why somebody may not want to pay the Francos the $30,000 that she owes them."
John Franco, 52, pitched for the Mets from 1990 to 2004, and also played for the Cincinnati Reds and Houston Astros during his 21-year Major League Baseball career. He served as Mets team captain in his last years with the team.
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