Goetz Lawyer Mugged by Man With Spiked Club

NEW YORK — The lawyer who defended subway gunman Bernhard H. Goetz was mugged Thursday outside his downtown Manhattan law office by an attacker with a spiked club who fled on a motor scooter, police said.

Attorney Barry Slotnick was reaching into the trunk of his parked car when he was struck from behind by a man armed with a club with a nail in it, police spokesman Peter O’Donnell said.

“After the attack, the assailant fled on a waiting motor scooter with another male driver,” O’Donnell said.

Both wore dark helmets with dark faceplates, and no further description was available, he said.

O’Donnell said Slotnick’s driver, who was seated in the car when the attack took place, drove the injured attorney to Beekman Downtown Hospital.

Fractured Wrist

The spokesman said Slotnick suffered a fractured wrist, two puncture wounds to his arm and a back injury.

“His wristwatch is missing, but there was no attempt to rob him,” O’Donnell said.

A spokeswoman at the hospital said a cast was put around Slotnick’s wrist and he was released at 8 p.m.

“It wasn’t a good day for him at all,” said Ken Ashford, a legal assistant in Slotnick’s law firm, Slotnick & Baker. He said Slotnick had just left the office at about 4:15 p.m. when the assault took place.

Slotnick’s defense of Goetz brought the lawyer nationwide publicity, particularly when a jury acquitted the subway gunman last month of attempted murder and assault charges in the shootings of four young men on a subway train on Dec. 22, 1984. Goetz was convicted only of illegal weapons possession.