This is a strange story of a prank gone bad at a gallery opening in Williamsburg a few years ago. It involves 31Grand and it’s co-director Heather Stephens, an old friend of mine.

EVEN now, four years later, people who know Simon Curtis still can’t believe the odd series of events that led him to spend the last year in jail. And although Mr. Curtis readily admits that he was living recklessly, drinking too much, taking drugs and spraying graffiti on the Lower East Side, he didn’t exactly see a state prison in his future when he went to an art opening on the night of July 14, 2001.

[…]

A good-size crowd had turned out, and a loose, partylike atmosphere prevailed. As the evening wound down, Mr. Curtis, then 31, found himself nearly alone inside the gallery and eyeing his favorite photo, a self-portrait of Ms. Cortez that showed her topless and wearing ripped stockings. He was feeling contented and mischievous and also a little drunk. It suddenly occurred to him that it would be funny to show up with the photo at Max Fish, a Lower East Side bar where Ms. Cortez had gone with friends. As a group of people stood outside smoking cigarettes in the sticky air, he reached up, plucked the photo from the wall and shuffled out.

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My fiance (girlfriend at the time) and I, along with our friends Bill and Dawn, were at the opening earlier that evening. We were just leaving dinner at Relish in Williamsburg when we saw a scuffle at the corner of Wythe and Metropolitan. I noticed that our friend Heather was involved in the fight so we went over to see what was going on.

We witnessed the entire fight. I eventually testified in front of the grand jury that indicted Sam Salganik. permanent link to this post