Michael Irvin accused of assaulting contractor
10:47 AM CDT on Tuesday, April 10, 2007
From Staff Reports
Former Dallas Cowboy Michael Irvin is facing accusations he assaulted a disabled contractor who was hired to install a fountain at his Plano home.
Shawn Vandergrift filed a lawsuit Monday against Mr. Irvin in Denton County, claiming that the former player yelled at him and grabbed him during a December dispute over a final payment for the construction work.
The suit claims that Mr. Vandergrift is permanently disabled by a hip condition and that he required medical attention as a result of being grabbed on the left arm during the confrontation.
Mr. Irvin was unavailable for comment Monday night. However, after KTCK-AM (1310) hosts George Dunham and Craig Miller mentioned seeing a report about the incident on DallasNews.com Tuesday morning, Mr. Irvin called the station and appeared on air to refute the allegations.
"The only injury he has is an old injury he already had," Mr. Irvin said of Mr. Vandergrift.
Mr. Irvin accused the hosts of going with a story they had not verified.
"Don't you think you guys should have called and asked me about something before you went on the air (with it)? ... I still believe you should have made the effort of calling me," he said.