Goma mauls motorist who honked at TV shooting

Actor and Presidential Adviser on Youth and Sports Richard Gomez and two of his bodyguards face charges of slight physical injuries and grave abuse of authority in the Quezon City Prosecutor's Office for allegedly roughing up a man during a traffic row two months ago.

The complainant, Ricci Lalic, an administrative assistant at the University Center Foundation, accused the actor and his bodyguards of ganging up on him last March 27 over a traffic misunderstanding.

Lalic was driving an Isuzu pick-up truck along Scout Albano Street in Quezon City on his way to his office adjacent to the ABS-CBN Audience Center when he was caught in a long traffic queue.

The man, who didn't know a television shooting was going on, honked his horn twice at the vehicles ahead of him.

This apparently angered the actor, who was in the shooting.

Lalic said a furious Gomez beckoned him to talk to him in front of the University Foundation Office some meters away. He said as he got out of his truck, Gomez approached him and hit him in the chest, causing him to fall down.

Then, as he struggled to his feet, a bodyguard of the actor, on Gomez's signal, punched him in the face and the stomach.

Another bodyguard, this time, joined by the actor, hit him too. He said the three men took turns in beating him up. The physical abuse only stopped when the actor's wife Lucy Torres stepped in and pulled Gomez away.

Lalic filed the complaint yesterday with the Quezon City Prosecutor's Office. --