NY Jets receiver testifies at civil assault trial

NEW YORK (AP) A New York Jets receiver testified Wednesday at his civil assault trial that fights inside a Manhattan nightclub annoyed him even before his wife was struck in the face by a bottle and he left the club, only to encounter a woman who claimed he punched her in the face.

Brandon Marshall testified briefly on the same day that Christin Myles, a Chino, California woman, finished testifying about the March 2012 encounter that she said left her with permanent injuries, including an eye scar and neck and back pain. She is seeking unspecified damages.

Marshall, 32, who was never charged with a crime, said he became annoyed after a couple of fights broke out among a group of people next to his party of four in the VIP section of the dance club.

''Man, the girls are fighting. Can you try to keep your section over there?'' Marshall recalled telling a man he thought he had befriended.

He said he thought a man in the section threw a cup or a punch before his longtime friend, former NFL receiver Michael Anthony Sims-Walker, threw a punch, something he did not realize until he recently reviewed security videotapes.

''What I remember is a cup being thrown and then all hell broke loose,'' Marshall said before testimony ended for the day.

His testimony resumes Thursday.

Earlier Wednesday, Myles completed her testimony, but not before Marshall's attorney, Harvey Steinberg, raised doubts about her claims that she saw tattoos on Marshall's forearm that were exposed because his blue shirt sleeves were rolled up. Steinberg has said Marshall never punched Myles.

She conceded that security video seemed to show his arms were covered by fabric seconds before she was injured. When questioned by her attorney, Joshua Moskovitz, Myles insisted that she saw tattoos on at least part of his forearm and that the sleeve moved up enough that she could.

''I have no doubt,'' Myles said.

Also Wednesday, Sims-Walker said in a deposition read aloud by lawyers to the jury that he offered to take any blame for the encounter to protect Marshall. He said neither of them punched any women that night.

He said Marshall left the club immediately after his wife was struck by a bottle, leaving her bloody and crying hysterically after her lip was torn and several teeth were knocked out.

Sims-Walker, who formerly played for the Jacksonville Jaguars, said he and Marshall were waiting for a car outside the club when men spilled out, looking to fight.

Sims-Walker said he pushed Myles when she charged at him. Myles had testified that she took a swing at Sims-Walker because she believed that he and Marshall were responsible for wrecking her birthday party.

''I think she ran into a metal gate or something,'' Sims-Walker said.