Michael Richards Sued Over Alleged Paparazzi Attack

Pratfall this wasn't. Seinfeld star is accused of beating up a photographer who was hounding him

In the past few years, Michael Richards has gone from lovable sitcom goofball to N-bomb-dropping  pariah.

Now he's accused of some allegedly "menacing" behavior toward a shutterbug.

The erstwhile Seinfeld star is on the receiving end of a lawsuit over an incident last month involving a paparazzo named Brendon O'Neal. In a complaint filed in Los Angeles Superior, the photog claims the 61-year-old Richards confronted O'Neal on a street in a "menacing manner" and then "with closed fists" attacked him, punching the shutterbug in the face and knocking him to the ground.

Read the lawsuit

"[Richards] proceeded to kick [the plaintiff] numerous times, directing the blows to [O'Neal's] arms, hands, and camera," states the suit.

No comment yet from Richards' camp on the lawsuit. There's no immediate word whether O'Neal ever filed a police report, but an LAPD spokesman says there's no record of charges ever being filed against the Emmy winner.

In any case, O'Neal is looking for Richards to fork over unspecified damages for all the "great mental, physical and nervous pain and suffering" he supposedly suffered along medical expenses.