The hot-tempered state senator who's got a reputation for using his fists is likely to get off easy for allegedly punching a Post photographer and smashing his camera.
Photog William Lopez said yesterday that a Brooklyn assistant DA told him and his lawyer that Sen. Kevin Parker might plead guilty to a special conditional misdemeanor with no jail time, according to The New York Post.
And Lopez isn't thrilled about the idea of Parker getting off so easy.
"It sounds like a slap on the wrist, and that slap on the wrist is a slap in the face to me," Lopez, who suffered a broken finger in the alleged assault, told the Post.
Lopez was camped outside Parker's Brooklyn home on May 8, working on a story about how the senator was in danger of losing his $610,000 house to foreclosure. Lopez said that when the flash went off, Parker became enraged and hit him. The senator also allegedly caused damage to the photographer's camera and car.
Parker was indicted on an assault charge and faced up to seven years behind bars. But the charge could be downgraded to a misdemeanor mandating he take six months of anger-management classes, which he's been ordered to in 2005 when he was arrested for punching a traffic agent.
That same year Parker's security pass for state buildings was temporarily suspended for repeated violations of security regulations. A former aide complained that Parker had once assaulted her, then threatened her for talking about the incident.
In September, one of Parker's aides charged that he pushed her during a dispute in his campaign headquarters. The aide, Lucretia John, told cops that her boss knocked $300 glasses off her face and stomped on them with his foot. Parker acknowledged that the two had a fight, but said that it was John who started it.
Arraignment in the Lopez case is scheduled for today.
