Actor Emile Hirsch Charged With Aggravated Assault

Actor Emile Hirsch Charged With Aggravated Assault, Actor Emile Hirsch was charged Thursday with assault stemming from an alleged incident last month, when he was in Utah for the Sundance Film Festival, according to a court document obtained by ABC News.

The document, filed by prosecutors and citing police reports, alleges that Hirsch choked a female studio executive and dragged her across a table on Jan. 25 at Tao Nightclub in Park City, Utah.

Hirsch is charged "with aggravated assault, a third-degree felony, and intoxication, a class C misdemeanor," Summit County Prosecutor Ryan Stack told ABC News. The assault charge "is punishable by up to five years in the Utah State Prison and a $5,000 fine," Stack said.

Police responded at around 3:52 a.m. to the nightclub and met with Daniele Bernfeld, the executive who reported she was assaulted by the "Into the Wild" actor, according to the document filed with Utah's Third District Court. She told police Hirsch, 29, approached her shortly after 3 a.m., appeared drunk and called her a "rich kid."

"Hirsch grabbed Bernfeld, but she pushed him away," the document said.

Bernfeld is an executive with Insurge Pictures, a company under the Paramount Pictures umbrella, according to The Associated Press.

After the actor moved away from Bernfeld to join friends at another table, he came back and "wrapped his arm around her to put her in a chokehold," according to the prosecutors' court filing. "Hirsch pulled Bernfeld across the table and onto the floor, where he landed on top of her."

Bernfeld told investigators she may have momentarily blacked out after Hirsch "wrapped his hands around her neck," according to the court filing. Two people at the club pulled the actor off Bernfeld, the document added.

A witness at a nearby table corroborated Bernfeld's account of the incident, and Park City Sgt. Jay Randall observed redness on her neck and chest, the court document said.

Police also spoke with the actor, who was not arrested but admitted to having "three or four drinks" and said he was in a "verbal confrontation" with Bernfeld, but didn't know her, the document noted.

"His balance was poor and he slurred some of his words," Randall said of Hirsch in the documents.

Neil Kaplan, an attorney for Hirsch, said he did not have any comment, but referred to a statement a Hirsch representative gave to another media outlet.

"Emile consumed an enormous amount of alcohol on the evening in question and he has no memory of what happened," Hirsch's spokesman, Robert Offer, told TMZ. "Emile takes these allegations very seriously, and is devastated that any of this has occurred. A few days after the incident, Emile sought help and checked himself into an alcohol rehabilitation facility, where he remains today, to ensure nothing like this ever happens again."

Offer did not immediately respond to ABC News' request for comment.

Insurge Pictures did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Bernfeld.

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