The associate of former Yankees and Mets pitcher David Cone has been accused in a lawsuit of beginning a hearth on the couple’s Manhattan condo in a bid to land a task on “The Actual Housewives of New York Metropolis.”
The blaze broke out inside Cone and associate Taja Abitbol’s 14th-floor pad at a luxurious high-rise in Lincoln Sq. on Nov. 6, 2019 — the day earlier than Abitbol was slated to look on Tamron Corridor’s ABC speak present.
The flames additionally considerably broken the condo of downstairs neighbor Daniel Rice, an Military vet and Purple Coronary heart recipient, he claims in his go well with, filed in Manhattan Supreme Court docket on Friday.
Rice claims that Abitbol, an actual property dealer, used the hearth to advertise her upcoming TV look and “advance” her candidacy for the Bravo actuality present.
“Abitbol’s want for fame and notoriety is well-known,” the go well with alleges.
The “Tamron Corridor Present” Twitter account had posted on the day of the blaze that, “We’re speaking to Taja Abitbol. She’s obsessive about astrology and just lately didn’t suppose what her astrologists stated would come true but it surely did.”
In her look on the present, Abitbol then defined how her astrologers instructed her she would transfer out of the condo she has simply moved into — a prediction that got here true when she was compelled to relocate to a resort within the aftermath of the blaze, the go well with states.
“Yesterday morning, I principally set the home on fireplace throughout Mercury retrograde and I needed to transfer. I got here right here from my resort room,” the submitting says Abitbol instructed Corridor.
She additionally defined on the present that she had her “candles burning throughout Mercury retrograde.”
Abitbol posted a photograph of herself on the studio on Instagram with the caption, “What signal are you? I’m a double Aries with Leo Rising all fireplace … Tune in to @Tamronhallshow on ABC.”
The go well with claims her publish, which included ten fireplace emojis, “was an express reference to the hearth in Unit 14B that broken Unit 12G.”
Rice accused Abitbol and Cone of “intentionally, knowingly, deliberately and/or recklessly,” having “precipitated the hearth … to ensure that Abitbol to have a narrative to debate on the Tamron Corridor Present and/or to advance Abitbol’s candidacy as a castmate for the Actual Housewives of New York [City] tv present, amongst different issues.”
Abitbol, 50, tried to get onto “RHONY” at the very least 4 instances, the go well with claims, citing Web page Six.
Rice — who’s suing for at the very least $320,000 in damages — says he couldn’t transfer again into the unit on the West Finish Avenue deal with till this yr.
The harm from the blaze compelled him to hold out a “intestine renovation” of the house, the courtroom papers declare. He stated throughout that point he was compelled discover “various short-term residing preparations.”
Rice claims the couple “negligently and wantonly left candles burning in Unit 14B which began a hearth and precipitated vital harm to Unit 12G,” in line with the submitting.
The vet obtained a Purple Coronary heart when he was injured by an improvised explosive machine in 2005 after serving a number of excursions within the Center East.
He’s presently serving because the Particular Advisor to Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces Normal Valeriy Zaluzhnyy within the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the courtroom papers say.
Todd Shapiro, a rep for Abitbol, stated the incident was dominated an accident by the hearth division and any allegations that she precipitated the hearth deliberately to additional her profession are “misguided and unfaithful.”
Shapiro additionally famous that Abitbol had already been paid by the insurance coverage firm for flooding attributable to sprinklers.
“There was a faulty candle that precipitated smoke and flame,” Abitbol instructed The Put up. “The sprinklers instantly went off and there was no harm from a hearth – that was clearly an accident.”
“The harm was attributable to the constructing and their sprinklers as a result of they had been by no means capable of shut them off. They needed to break the sprinklers as a way to get them to cease the water that precipitated a flood,” Abitbol stated.
Abitbol’s different rep Brian Finnegan stated, “Taja reached out to others within the constructing and feels horrible that they sustained property damages similar to Taja did. Taja sustained a whole lot of 1000’s in property harm because of the water and in essence reached out to verify to make that others had been OK.”
A working quantity couldn’t be discovered for Cone, who retired from the MLB in 2003 and is presently a commentator for the Yankees on the YES Community and WPIX. Cone’s rep didn’t instantly return a request for remark.
The corporate that owned the unit Cone and Abitbol had been renting didn’t instantly return a message left with the constructing.
