Suit blames Phanatic for woman's injuries

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PHILADELPHIA, June 13 (UPI) -- A woman says in a lawsuit she suffered severe injuries when the Philadelphia Phillies' mascot threw her into a pool at a New Jersey hotel.

The suit said Suzanne M. Peirce of Abington, Pa., was sitting in a lounge chair at the Golden Inn Hotel & Resort in Avalon, N.J., in 2010 when the Phillie Phanatic, who was performing, "picked up her chair and threw plaintiff and her chair into the pool," The Philadelphia Inquirer reported.

The suit, filed in Common Pleas Court in Philadelphia, said Peirce suffered "severe and permanent injuries" to her head, neck, back, arms and legs. The incident also caused "severe aches, pains, mental anxiety and anguish, and a severe shock to her entire nervous system," the suit said.

Aaron Denker, Peirce's attorney, told the Atlantic City Press Peirce hit the bottom of the pool's shallow end and now must walk with a cane.

Bonnie Clark, a Phillies spokeswoman, said the organization couldn't discuss the pending litigation.

"We do not believe the Phanatic engaged in any wrongful conduct," Clark said.

The lawsuit names as defendants the Phillies, the company that owns the hotel and two Phillies employees, who may have been performing as the Phanatic that day, the Inquirer said.