February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
By Ray O’Hanlon
Lawyers for a Monaghan man who was stabbed and nearly killed at a New York Jets football game two years ago are this week pressing two $23 million civil cases, one in New Jersey, the other in New York.
Michael McGee, 32, who lives in Westchester County, was rushed to the intensive care unit of Hackensack University Medical Center after being stabbed by a 300-pound Massachusetts teenager following a Jets game against the New England Patriots on Oct. 19, 1997.
McGee, from Emyvale, spent a week in hospital but is claiming that the stabbing, which punctured his lung, has caused permanent damage.
The accused teen, Andrew Parziale of Woburn, Mass., a 16-year-old minor at the time of the incident, pleaded guilty last year and was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in a New Jersey juvenile facility.
It emerged during court hearings that Parziale had been served alcohol at Giants Stadium prior to the assault on McGee.
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In the wake of the guilty plea, McGee’s lawyers filed two civil cases, one of them against the Philadelphia-based Aramark Corporation, which runs the concession stands at Giants Stadium.
That case, currently being heard at the federal court in Newark, also names Giants Stadium, Parziale and two of his brothers, Augustine and Matthew. The case is presently in the discovery and motions phase.
A separate case against the Jets and the National Football League is proceeding in New York Supreme Court in Manhattan.
"We are now scheduling discovery hearings in Supreme Court and are hoping to get things going in a couple of weeks," said McGee’s attorney, Terence Scheurer.
"We’re still in the middle of this. No one has stepped forward to accept responsibility and be accountable," Scheurer added.
McGee states in his lawsuits that the lung damage has restricted his ability to work. He runs a construction company in Sleepy Hollow, formerly North Tarrytown.
McGee also states that he is an avid sports fan, a follower of not just the Jets but also the New York Yankees and Rangers and that he now suffers from anxiety at the very thought of attending games in a stadium.