MIDTOWN — A Hell’s Kitchen man was arrested and charged with sexually assaulting a woman inside a Flaming Saddles Bar bathroom stall, prosecutors said.
Ricardo Lambert, 34, allegedly choked a 34-year-old woman unconscious and ripped off her underwear while she was in the bathroom in the Ninth Avenue bar on Oct. 3.
A security guard doing a heard sounds of a struggle coming from the bathroom and intervened, causing Lambert to flee, according to police and a criminal complaint.
When the security guard first entered the bathroom he saw the woman lying on the floor inside a bathroom stall with Lambert standing over her, according to court papers. He tried to open the stall door, but Lambert held it it shut, the security guard told police.
The guard was finally able to push his way into the stall and pulled Lambert away from the woman, court papers said.
As the guard was bringing him out the bathroom Lambert broke free and ran out of the bar, Flaming Saddles owner Chris Barnes told DNAinfo.
The woman was taken to a local hospital in stable condition.
She and Lambert, who lived just few blocks away at 516 West 50th Street, did not know each other, the NYPD added.
Flaming Saddles, located on the corner of Ninth Avenue and 53rd Street, was voted the best gay bar in 2012 by New York Magazine.
Lambert was arraigned in Manhattan Criminal Court Sunday morning and held on $250,000 bail.
He is due back in court on Oct. 17.
Barnes said he was "thrilled" police made an arrest.
"The detectives were really good. They really stayed on this," Barnes said. "Getting him off the street—that was the big concern."
Lambert's attorney did not return an immediate request for comment.
