MANHATTAN — A former professional rugby player has been ordered by a judge to pay three victims of his 2015 drunken rampage on the Upper West Side $1.23 million in damages, according to an opinion filed last week.
German tourist Carolin Dekeyser and Manhattan couple Joseph Cartright and Ruth Fowler Read filed their suit against Matthew Lodge after the Australian athlete harassed Dekeyser before attacking Cartright and terrorizing his family in their West End Avenue apartment, located near 76th Street, early in the morning of Oct. 16, 2015.
In the original complaint filed Dec. 12, 2015, Dekeyser said that she and a female friend encountered a visibly intoxicated Lodge outside the Upper West Side building where they were staying. Lodge grabbed Dekeyser twice, the suit said, and later placed himself between the women and the brownstone door, telling them, "This is the night you're going to die."
When Cartright, a resident of the building for more than 20 years, heard Dekeyser and her friend buzzing the front door and shouting for help, he intervened, the suit said.
Despite Cartright's efforts to calm the rugby player down, Lodge eventually forced his way into the man's apartment, according to the suit.
"My name is Matthew Lodge. I come in peace. Salaam Alaikum," he allegedly repeated while pacing back and forth in the apartment where Cartright's wife, Ruth Fowler, and his 9-year-old son had been sleeping.
When Fowler attempted to shut Lodge out of the apartment, he retaliated by putting her husband in a headlock and punching him. He then broke plates and glasses in the kitchen and furniture in the living room.
When Fowler locked herself and her son in the bathroom, Lodge tried to punch his way through, the complaint said.
Lodge was arrested at gunpoint when the NYPD arrived, police said, and later charged with felony burglary causing injury, according to prosecutors.
In their civil suit, Cartright and Fowler said their son had night terrors for three weeks after the incident. The family eventually moved to Brooklyn four months later, because "they couldn't live in that apartment anymore."
Dekeyser said she had trouble sleeping and suffered from night terrors and anxiety after the attack, and was forced to pay out-of-pocket for therapy sessions.
Judge Kimba Wood ordered Lodge to pay the plaintiffs Cartright $375,000, Fowler $275,000 and Dekeyser $150,000 in emotional damages.
She also awarded Cartright and Fowler $58,806 to cover the costs of material destruction, their move and an attorney. Dekeyser received $1,000 for the hotel room she rented after the incident.
The judge also awarded the plaintiffs punitive damages.
In December, a New York City criminal court judge declined to send Lodge — who pleaded guilty to reckless assault and completed 200 hours of community service and received alcohol abuse and anger treatment in Australia — back to jail in the U.S.
Lodge's rugby team, the Wests Tigers, sacked him shortly after his arrest, but he is now poised for a return to the country's top league, having received approval to train with the Brisbane Broncos.
