No charges for Matthew Fox in bus driver complaint

[September 17, 2011]  COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) -- Cleveland prosecutors will not charge Matthew Fox on a complaint that the star of the former "Lost" television series punched a private bus driver last month.

City spokeswoman Andrea Taylor said in a statement Friday the decision was made "after a thorough review of the facts."

Bus driver Heather Bormann of Cleveland had said Fox hit her early Aug. 28 after she blocked him from boarding a chartered party bus she was driving. She said Fox wanted a ride to his hotel and appeared intoxicated.

Bormann referred a call Friday to her lawyer, J. Norman Stark, who said the city's decision is a "miscarriage of justice."

"I disagreed most strenuously with the city prosecutor, who failed to see that this is, after all, a criminal act. It is not a simple civil act," Stark said. "And I'm disappointed, as my client is, in the fact that the prosecutor did not see fit to enforce the law."

Bormann filed a civil lawsuit against Fox in Cuyahoga County this week, alleging Fox engaged in "intentional, aggravated felonious assault and battery" and inflicted intentional emotional distress.

The lawsuit says Fox punched Bormann in the breast, groin, arm and legs, causing injuries that required medical treatment and led to loss of income. It says Bormann defended herself, hitting Fox in the head, bloodying his lip and injuring her own hand and fingers.

The lawsuit seeks at least $75,000 in compensatory and punitive damages.

An email seeking comment was sent to Fox's publicist.

[Associated Press; By JoANNE VIVIANO]

Associated Press writer Lisa Cornwell in Cincinnati contributed to this report.

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