Alec Baldwin has pleaded guilty to second-degree harassment following a highly-publicized parking spot scuffle.
Baldwin appeared at New York City Criminal Court on Wednesday for a hearing on charges that he punched a man during a dispute over a parking spot last fall.
The 60-year-old SNL star agreed to take anger management classes, which he must finish by March, and pay a $120 fine.
Alec Baldwin has pleaded guilty to second-degree harassment following a highly-publicized parking spot scuffle
Baldwin, 60, had been accused of punching a man over a parking spot on November 2. He is pictured here walking out of court on Wednesday with his attorney Alan Abramson
The actor looked downcast as he exited the courtroom after entering his plea.
He sported all dark colors for the hearing, a far cry from the bright purple polo shirt he wore as he maintained his innocence in November.
Baldwin kept his hand over his mouth and looked emotional as he left, at one point even balling his hand into a fist as he continued to cover half his face.
Baldwin previously claimed he never punched anyone over the parking spot, while prosecutors said he told a police officer that he pushed the man.
‘He’s an a**hole. He stole my spot. I did push him,’ Baldwin allegedly said.
The former 30 Rock star was initially arrested on assault and harassment charges, which were later downgraded by prosecutors.
Baldwin looked downcast as he exited the courtroom after entering his plea on Wednesday
He kept his mouth covered as he left New York State Supreme Court and faced photographers
Baldwin looked similarly somber as he entered his guilty plea. He is seen here in the courtroom on Wednesday
Police were told a driver pulled into a Manhattan parking space that one of Baldwin’s relatives was holding for him, and the two men started quarreling and pushing each other.
Wojciech Cieszkowski told police that Baldwin punched or slapped him over the parking spot.
‘I observed the defendant push me and then strike me across the left side of my face with his closed right hand, resulting in pain to my face,’ Cieszkowski stated after the incident, according to court papers.
The 49-year-old man was taken to a hospital complaining of jaw pain and redness around his neck.
But it wasn’t all bad news for Baldwin (pictured with his attorney Alan Abramson) as more serious charges, including attempted assault, had been dropped
Baldwin previously claimed he never punched anyone over the parking spot, while prosecutors said he told a police officer that he pushed the man
Baldwin later tweeted that the episode was ‘egregiously misstated’.
An eyewitness told DailyMail.com that Cieszkowski was pulling into a spot outside Baldwin’s apartment building when the actor lost control.
The witness claimed that Baldwin went after Cieszkowski as he went to pay the meter.
It is unclear what happened next, with Baldwin denying that he punched Cieszkowski despite the alleged victim’s claims.
Baldwin, who has had a number of physical and verbal altercations on the streets of New York in the past, later posted about the incident on social media.
Baldwin agreed to take anger management classes by the end of March as part of his plea
The Saturday Night Live star will also have to pay a $120 fine in the parking spot scuffle
Baldwin is seen here leaving the courtroom after his hearing at New York City Criminal Court
‘Normally, I would not comment on something as egregiously misstated as today’s story. However, the assertion that I punched anyone over a parking spot is false,’ wrote Baldwin on the charitable page of his foundation with wife Hilaria.
‘I wanted to go on the record stating as much. I realize that it has become a sport to tag people with as many negative charges and defaming allegations as possible for the purposes of clickbait entertainment.’
‘Fortunately, no matter how reverberating the echos, it doesn’t make the statements true.’
In 1995 Baldwin allegedly punched a cameraman who filmed him and then-wife Kim Basinger returning home from the hospital with newborn daughter Ireland.
Baldwin was dressed in all dark colors for his hearing, a far cry from the bright purple polo shirt he wore as he maintained his innocence during a hearing in November
Baldwin sported a black polo shirt, which he wore underneath a dark suit. He topped the outfit off with a deep burgundy scarf
The guilty plea is just the latest legal trouble for the star, who has gotten into numerous public confrontations during his career
Twenty years later Baldwin again found himself in trouble with the law when he was arrested for being belligerent to a police officer who ticketed him for riding his bike the wrong way in a one-way street.
In 2011, he found himself kicked off an American Airlines plane for slamming a bathroom door after being repeatedly told he needed to stop playing Word With Friends while the flight was preparing for takeoff.
And in 2013 he was suspended for two weeks by MSNBC for an incident in which he called a New York Post photographer a ‘c***-s***ing f****t,’ with the network then deciding to cancel his show Up late With Alec Baldwin.
And the reality seemed to set in for Baldwin, who looked downcast even as he arrived in court on Wednesday
Baldwin’s most infamous rant however was directed at his daughter, screaming: ‘You are a rude, thoughtless little pig.’
He also told her she needed to get her ‘a** straightened out’ and that she had ‘humiliated [him] for the last time’. Ireland was 11 at the time.
Baldwin left the shocking voicemail after his daughter, now 23, had missed a scheduled phone call amid a bitter custody dispute with Basinger.
The actor later said the entire incident left him feeling suicidal.