Grizzlies’ Hamed Haddadi hit with lawsuit over domestic incident last year
former girlfriend of Memphis Grizzlies backup center Hamed Haddadi filed a civil suit Tuesday, claiming that an altercation in his Downtown apartment last year left her with scars, post-traumatic stress and bills for medical and psychological treatment.
Haddadi, 26, was charged with misdemeanor domestic assault following the incident on Thanksgiving last year in his 12th-floor apartment at 67 Madison.
He has pleaded not guilty in the case, which is still pending.
Similar charges were filed against Golnaz Karbalaeinematmoeeney, also known as Golnaz 'Asal' Moeeny, but those charges were dropped when prosecutors determined that her injuries were consistent with her account of Haddadi being the aggressor.
Her Circuit Court suit asks for $250,000 in damages.
Moeeny, 22, a college student in San Jose, Calif., also is from Iran and was friends with Haddadi, whom she had met at a basketball game and began dating after his divorce last year, said her attorney, Jeff Rosenblum.
The incident at the apartment occurred after she and a girlfriend from California had traveled to Memphis see Haddadi.
Police said Moeeny told them Haddadi became upset because she had been talking to another man and that the 7-2 center began choking her and shoved her against a wall.
She was intoxicated, bleeding from her head and hand and had a black eye and bruising around her neck, according to an affidavit.
Haddadi, who police said had scratches on his face and a wound on his hand, said the dispute arose when Moeeny fell out of bed, became angry and threw a soap dispenser at him that he deflected back into her head.
He said she threw other items at him, locked herself in the bathroom and that he kicked the door in for fear she might be hurting herself with a knife.
Moeeny said in the lawsuit that she retreated to the bathroom because she feared for her life, but that he broke in and choked her in a fit of rage.
Her girlfriend, Ashlee Brown, gave police a statement of what she witnessed, the suit said.
Haddadi's conduct, the suit added, went "beyond all bounds of decency."
