Wendell Pierce speaks out about arrest and nixes Rutgers commencement speech

Wendell Pierce, the actor from “The Odd Couple” and “The Wire” who was arrested in the wee hours Saturday on suspicion of simple battery, spoke out Monday night on social media about the Atlanta incident.

He has also backed out as Rutgers University-Newark’s 2016 commencement speaker, forfeiting an honorary degree he was to have received Wednesday.

“I regret that what started as a civil political discussion escalated to the level that it did,” said Pierce, who’s known for his work on “The Wire,” in a series of tweets. “Although what has been reported thus far differs in important respects from what actually occurred, I have confidence that the judicial process will work as it should.”

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Not in dispute: Something went down at the Loews Atlanta Hotel around 3:30 a.m. Saturday, and an officer with the Atlanta Police Department responded to a call about a fight.

According to the incident report, a woman, her husband and a friend encountered Pierce and his girlfriend on the 23rd floor of the hotel, where the three were sitting out in the hallway. The woman said the two groups started talking politics, “which got Mr. Pierce upset,” according to the report. At that point, she told police, the actor began to push her, and when her group started walking to their room, the actor followed them and tried to come into the room, blocking the door with his arm. When she and her friends tried to push him out, he “began to hit her in the head and grabbed her hoodie, ripping the hood off,” the report said.

Pierce also talked to police after the incident, recounting events differently for the report. He said he was standing outside the other parties’ room and the woman and her friends attempted to pull him in as he tried to get away from them. The actor’s girlfriend said their room was on a different floor in the hotel, the report said.

Medical attention was declined by all, the report said. Pierce was taken to Fulton County Jail, and he posted $1,000 bail later Saturday.

“Mr. Pierce made no indication he was famous,” Officer Kim Jones, an Atlanta Police Department spokeswoman, said Monday. The arrest was “treated like any other,” she said, and “did not rise to anything significant.”

The headline on an initial report from TMZ had Pierce, a Hillary Clinton supporter, “attacking” a Bernie Sanders supporter. A mug shot obtained by the site shows the actor with a scratch on his upper lip and possibly on his nose.

The “Ray Donovan” actor has been on location in Atlanta filming the movie “One Last Thing” with Jurnee Smollet-Bell.

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Rutgers-Newark announced its change of commencement speakers Monday on Facebook.

“[I]n order to assure that commencement 2016 will be a celebration of the accomplishments of our students free of distractions, [Pierce] is declining to join us and consequently must decline the conferral of an honorary degree,” the school said. TV journalist Soledad O’Brien will take his place.

Pierce’s publicist confirmed Tuesday that the tweets were the actor’s statement on the matter.

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