Supermodel is charged with assault

Naomi Campbell was charged with second-degree assault Thursday after cracking her housekeeper in the head with a phone during an argument in her Park Avenue apartment, New York police said.

The 35-year-old British-born supermodel was taken into custody shortly after police went to Lenox Hill Hospital to investigate the reported assault, police said.

According to police, Campbell’s 41-year-old housekeeper received four stitches to the head. When investigating officers arrived at the hospital, the alleged victim, who wasn’t identified, said Campbell had attacked her, police said.

The incident reportedly happened around 8 a.m. in Campbell’s tony Park Avenue apartment.

In a statement, a Campbell spokesman said the supermodel wasn’t responsible for any assault.

“We believe this is a case of retaliation because Naomi had fired her housekeeper earlier this morning,” said the statement from J.R. Johnson. “We are confident the courts will see it the same way.”

In 2003, Campbell was sued by a former administrative assistant who claimed that Campbell had thrown a phone at her during a tantrum two years earlier. Campbell pleaded guilty in Toronto to an assault charge for beating another assistant while making a film in Canada in 1998.