Wall Streeter Accused Of "Spin Rage"

A Wall Street stock broker has been charged with assault after he became enraged during a health club cycling class and slammed a fellow member and his bike against a wall, according to a complaint.

Christopher Carter, 44, a broker at Maxim Investments Group, was at Equinox gym taking a spin class, a high-impact workout using stationary bikes. The criminal complaint filed in the case says Carter - angered by fellow gym member Stuart Sugarman's hooting and grunting during the workout - picked up Sugarman and his bike and hurled them into a wall.

"This is spin rage," said Samuel L. Davis, Sugarman's attorney.

Sugarman, 48, a Manhattan hedge fund manager, suffered a back injury that required surgery to correct a herniated disc pressing on his spinal cord, Davis said.

"The guy had a spinal-cord contusion with major surgery to his neck involving the use of cadaver tissue and multiple metal plates and screws," Davis told the New York Post.

Carter was charged with a misdemeanor assault and was released on his own recognizance, according to the Manhattan prosecutor's office. A criminal complaint charges that Carter caused a back injury to Sugarman.

Carter's attorney Michael Farkas denied the claim.

"We intend to vigorously fight this charge," Farkas said. "We await the truth to come out, which will be a vastly different story than Mr. Sugarman's."

The incident took place last month at the Upper East Side gym, which is frequented by celebrities and wealthy business executives, Davis said. Sugarman, who weighs about 200 pounds, was enjoying the "euphoric experience" of cycling and was making noises to increase his high, according to Davis.

The grunting Sugarman is accusing the allegedly berserk broker - both men top 200 pounds - of tilting Sugarman's stationary bike's front wheel up a yard off the floor and flipping the bike and Sugarman into a wall.

"Carter yelled over to him to shut up," Davis said. "My client yells back: 'This is spin class. If you don't like it, leave. Stop being such a baby,"' he said.

With that, Carter walked over to the bike, lifted it into the air and flipped it over, Davis said.

Sugarman got back on the bike and continued the class but stopped when he began to feel pain, Davis said. He called an ambulance from his cell phone and was taken to a hospital.