The lawyer who has been warring with actor Justin Theroux over renovations to their West Village co-op building terrorized two other residents with harpoon-like “farming tools,” according to new court filings.
Norman Resnicow allegedly went berserk in the lobby of 71 Washington Place on April 29, while holding “two long wooden rods with metal hooks on top,” as he accused the pair, David McCorkle and Bradley Calcaterra, of committing perjury, McCorkle wrote in an affidavit Tuesday.
Theroux sued Resnicow in 2017 in Manhattan Supreme Court, claiming the lawyer has harassed him over his $1 million apartment renovations for years.
McCorkle, the president of the co-op board, and board member Calcaterra submitted affidavits April 27 backing up “The Leftovers” actor’s claims about a roof deck that’s at the center of the suit.
But two days later, Resnicow allegedly flew into a rage over the sworn statements, screaming that Calcaterra and McCorkle perjured themselves and “would face consequences” for submitting the affidavits, according to court papers.
“Throughout the course of Mr. Resnicow’s diatribe, he kept taking steps forward in a menacing fashion, holding the farming tools, until I became worried for my safety and asked him to please step back,” McCorkle wrote in his latest affidavit.
He said he then told Resnicow, “Shame on you for acting like this,” which sent the attorney scurrying back into his apartment.
McCorkle said he later learned the rods Resnicow was holding were actually “log rollers” – which resemble harpoons.
McCorkle said since becoming board president in 2012, he’s seen “Mr. Resnicow repeatedly leverage his legal knowledge and his hair-trigger volcanic temper to bully fellow residents and board members into either their acquiescence or silence.”
The judge overseeing the scorched-earth case issued a temporary restraining order earlier this week barring Resnicow from “harassing, intimidating [and] threatening” witnesses in the case, including McCorkle and Calcaterra.
Resnicow declined to comment.
His lawyer, Peter Levine, said the situation was not what it looked like.
“He wasn’t roaming the hallways and the lobby looking for people to kill,” Levine said. “That’s ridiculous. He was coming out of the electrical room with these gardening tools and he ran into one of the board members.”
Resnicow will address the board members’ accusations in his own affidavit due June 8.
“Norman has the opportunity to respond to these allegations and will place this event in proper context and in proper perspective,” Levine said. “The allegations against him are exaggerated and the judge made no factual findings by signing that order.”