Update!

Matthew Fox Facing Legal Action Over Party Bus Brouhaha

Former Party of Fiver is slapped with a lawsuit by a bus driver who says he roughed her up

By Josh Grossberg Sep 16, 2011 5:24 PMTags
Matthew FoxThe Media Circuit/INFphoto.com

It isn't the smoke monster coming after him, just the woman Matthew Fox allegedly attacked in an incident that got him briefly detained last month.

The Lost star has found himself on the receiving end of a lawsuit filed by a bus driver who's claiming Fox socked her in her privates after she denied him entry to her party bus outside a Cleveland bar.

Per the complaint obtained by E! News (read it in full here), Heather Bormann alleges the trouble started when the actor, who was severely inebriated, tried to barge onto the coach uninvited around 1:30 a.m. and demanded she take him back to the Ritz-Carlton Hotel.

The 29-year-old mother of three refused and at first "politely advised him he was not permitted to board" since he was not part of the private bachelor party that had rented the vehicle. He persisted and tried to force his way on at which point Bormann says she blocked his path.

According to court documents, that's when the thesp "suddenly and without provocation...attacked plaintiff with his fists, delivering sudden and severe blows to her right breast, groin, arm and legs, inflicting severe, disabling injury."

Bormann went on to add in the claim that she "instinctively defended herself" and slugged Fox right back in the face and head, "cutting and bloodying his lip, causing him to spit blood." He failed to retreat however, forcing her to strike him again, which she says resulted in her severely injuring her hand and fingers.

As it happened, an off-duty cop was nearby and briefly took Fox into custody for questioning before letting him go without charge.

But that's not stopping Bormann from demanding compensation.

Her suit seeks more than $25,000 in damages for assault, battery and intentional infliction of emotion distress.

Fox was in town shooting the upcoming film I, Alex Cross.

A lawyer for the actor was unavailable for comment.

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Update: Bormann's attorney, J. Norman Stark, tells E! News that his client was stunned by the incident.

"I'm one of the old fashioned guys that say you don't hit a woman even if she hits you," says the legal eagle. "She was shocked when he popped her. And when he kept hitting her, she turned around and slugged him and bloodied his lip. And then he still wouldn't stop so she smacked him in the back of the head. Then his friends grabbed him and pulled him off, away from the bus, and then the police came and handcuffed him but then turned him over to friends to take him back to his hotel quietly."

Stark added he does not know at this point whether criminal charges will be filed.

—Reporting by Claudia Rosenbaum

PICS: If Fox had been arrested, no doubt his teary-eyed mug would've made it into our Mug-Shot Mania gallery