Socialite Jacqueline Kent Cooke charged after alleged assault with a $419 glass purse

Jacqueline Kent Cooke in New York City. Photo / Getty

Jacqueline Kent Cooke, the 29-year-old daughter of former Redskins owner Jack Kent Cooke, was arrested Wednesday after a New Year's Eve altercation that allegedly involved a US$300 (NZ$419) glass clutch and an anti-Semitic remark, according to the New York Police Department.

Cooke has been charged with second-degree assault, and the incident is being investigated by the Hate Crimes Task Force, the NYPD confirmed to The Washington Post.

The incident involving Cooke and a 52-year-old man, identified by the New York Daily News as San Francisco lawyer Matthew Haberkorn, took place just before midnight Sunday at Caravaggio, a high-end Italian restaurant on the Upper East Side, according to the police.

Cooke, Haberkorn and his family — including his 77-year-old mother, wife and four daughters — were waiting in the coat check line when the millionaire heiress reportedly got impatient. According to the NYPD, Cooke allegedly made an anti-Semitic remark to Haberkorn's mother. Haberkorn told the New York Daily News that she said, "Hurry up, Jew."

Cooke allegedly repeated the slur, saying "Hurry up, Jew. I got places to be." Her boyfriend, who was not identified by name, also made a remark to Haberkorn's daughters, telling them "Happy bat mitzvah," according to both Haberkorn and his wife, Linda Thomas.

The situation escalated quickly when Haberkorn confronted Cooke for her comments outside the restaurant.

"I walked up to her and asked her why she said that," Haberkorn told the Daily News. "She took her purse, which was a mirrored glass purse, and smashed me with it."

The NYPD confirmed that the dispute become physical when Cooke struck Haberkorn in the head with a glass clutch. The Daily News identified the clutch that Cooke, who has worked in fashion, allegedly wielded as a US$300 (NZ$419) Lulu Guinness mirrored Perspex clutch.

Video of the incident, taken by one of Haberkorn's daughters, shows the lawyer and the socialite getting into an awkward tussle on the sidewalk outside the restaurant while Cooke's boyfriend intervenes. Photos published in the New York Daily News show a bloodied Haberkorn.

Cooke was arraigned on Thursday after being arrested and charged Wednesday with second-degree assault, a felony. She has filed a cross-complaint against Haberkorn, according to the Daily News.