The New York Jets fan who drew national notoriety for punching a female New England Patriots supporter in the face following the Jets' 30-27 overtime victory Sunday has been in trouble for violent acts before.
The New York Post reported Monday that 38-year-old Kurt Paschke, a bartender from Long Island, was sentenced to nearly four years in prison after being convicted of criminally negligent homicide for stabbing a teen during a fight outside a pizzeria in 1992.
Paschke's mother, Colleen, defended her son to the Post on Monday, saying that her son was merely protecting her from a group of rowdy New England fans who started the dustup.
"There was a group of Patriots fans antagonizing our friends the whole game," she said. "Our friends were in the same row and, for instance, they were even making fun of a girl because she just gotten braces.
"As my son and I were leaving [after the game], the group came charging from behind and said 'Let’s get them,'" she said.
"They push through us to get to his friends and start throwing punches. My son wanted to break it up. Then the girl [on the video] was throwing three punches at my son … and with that, my son is just trying to protect himself and me."
"Yes a guy should not hit a girl or a woman," Colleen Paschke told MyFoxNY, "but if you are going to get a maniac girl how much abuse are you supposed to take before you defend yourself?"
The Post identified the woman who was punched as Jaclyn Nugent, a 26-year-old woman from the Boston area. A man who identified as himself as her brother told the paper he had only just heard of the incident, then told a Post reporter to "Go screw!"
Paschke and a friend were questioned by New Jersey State Police after the incident, but had not been arrested as of Monday night.
Paschke's father, a retired Suffolk County, New York police officer told the Post that his son was "very upset" about the incident, adding, "They're making him out to be an animal."
The father of Henri Ferrer, the teen in the 1992 stabbing, told the Post he was not surprised.
"I wrote the judge a letter that this guy is going to kill again,” said Robert Ferrer. "He killed for no reason. He went out of his way to get a knife to stab my son. My son was involved in a fist fight, and he went out to get a knife and stabbed my son. They were the same age. They were the same size. He had no business killing my son."
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