The Spider-Man trial kicked off in New York City this week as one of the costumed superheros that roams Times Square faces allegations that he hit a passer-by who didn't tip him for posing with a photo in February 2013.
Victoria Goreaciuc says Philip Williams cursed at her and later punched her in the face after she confronted him and flung a handful of snow at him, according to The Associated Press. Williams says he just defended himself after a cold, hard chunk hit his head.
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While the stakes are serious — a potential criminal record and up to 90 days in jail for Williams if he's convicted of harassment and other charges — the proceedings have a touch of the surreal. The evidence includes a Spider-Man suit, and the questions include whether a costumed Batman had also been on the scene. Even Manhattan Criminal Court Judge Anthony Ferrara couldn't resist a seeming cartoon allusion as he described police apprehending Williams, 36.
"They chased down Spider-Man — apparently, he could not get away," the judge said during a pretrial hearing.
The misdemeanor case is among several recent prosecutions of costumed figures who try to make a living by charming tourists in Times Square, generally without authorization from characters' owners. In the last two years, a man dressed as the Cookie Monster was charged with shoving a 2-year-old, a person garbed as Super Mario was accused of groping a woman and an Elmo figure pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct after unleashing an anti-Semitic tirade.
Goreaciuc, a New York-area information technology worker, was celebrating her son's seventh birthday when the family encountered a Spider-Man character who urged a photo, she testified. He broached a tip, she said she had no cash and he swore at her, she said.
The family went shopping for about an hour, but her two children kept asking about Spider-Man's remark, and Goreaciuc decided to tell police. Back outside in Times Square, she saw a Spider-Man and approached him, but soon realized she had the wrong one.
She spotted another Spidey, asked him why he'd cursed at her, scooped up some loose snow "and threw it in his direction" as she walked on, she said. He hit her in the temple, knocking her to the ground, and took off, she said.
She alerted police and followed them to a parking garage where officers had stopped Phillips, shirtless but in Spider-Man tights.
Williams' lawyer initially raised questions about whether he even was the masked figure who allegedly insulted Goreaciuc. But Williams testified that he had used a vulgarity toward a woman he now believes was Goreaciuc.
But he said he didn't recognize her when she accosted him later, holding what he described as a block of ice and saying, "You're going to jail!"
He started to walk away, felt a blow to his head and noticed someone walking around him. "And I swung," said Williams, an aspiring actor who appeared in court in a pin-striped business suit.
The trial continues Wednesday.
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