Spider-Man On Trial For Punching Woman

Spider-Man is apparently not everybody’s favorite web-slinger, as he gets ready to stand trial for an incident from February 2013. According to a report from The Associated Press, a man dressed as Spider-Man reportedly hit a pedestrian in Times Square after she refused to tip him for posing for a photo with her children.

The report states that the man in the Spider-Man costume, Phillip Williams, cursed at Victoria Goreaciuc and later punched her in the face after she had thrown some snow at him. During the trial, Williams said he was acting in self defense after a chunk of snow hit him on the head.

Williams, an aspiring actor, faces attempted assault and harassment and could spend 90 days in jail if he is convicted. But the trial has brought up some bizarre questions, such as if there was a costumed Batman at the scene of the incident. Manhattan Criminal Court Judge Anthony Ferrara even made a crack about the case during a pretrial hearing, saying:

“They chased down Spider-Man – apparently, he could not get away.”

During the trial, Goreaciuc said she was celebrating her son’s seventh birthday when the family came across Williams in the Spider-Man costume and wanted to take a picture. After the photo was snapped, Williams asked for a tip, but Goreaciuc said she didn’t have any cash on her. That’s when he cursed at her.

She continued by saying the family did some shopping, and her son and daughter kept asking about the comment the man in the Spider-Man costume had made. She then spotted a man wearing a Spider-Man costume and asked why he swore at her. She picked up some snow and threw it at him, hitting the man in the back of the head. In return, he hit her in the temple, knocking her to the ground, and ran away.

Police arrested Williams after he was spotted wearing just Spider-Man tights.

According to a report from New York Daily News, Williams’ attorney, Rachel Black, said at the trial he might have called her a “piece of crap” after she stiffed him for a tip. That’s not reason enough for Goreaciuc to throw snow at the costumed Spider-Man, though.

“Saying you’re a piece crap is a really obnoxious thing to do and unfortunately in New York we have to deal with stuff like that,” Black said. “It’s actually not a crime to be a jerk, unfortunately or fortunately.”

At the trial, Black added that Goreaciuc is the “initial aggressor” in this case, and it wasn’t a snowball that hit Williams in the back of the head; it was “an ice block.”

“He turned and acted in self-defense because he reasonably believed that Ms. Goreaciuc was going to use physical force against him because she had just used physical force against him,” she said.

The Spider-Man trial will resume on Wednesday.

In a related report from The Inquisitr, a Spider-Man statue in South Korea was removed from a shopping center after people complained of a noticeable bulge in the web-slinger’s pants.

[Image via Screen Rant]