A Beverly Hills Police Department spokesperson confirmed to E! News Tuesday that Good Charlotte frontman Joel Madden is being investigated for allegedly roughing up a woman over the weekend outside of celebrity hotspot Mr. Chow.
According to TMZ.com, which first reported the incident, the woman who filed a complaint against Madden is a photographer who was trying to snap a pic of the rocker and girlfriend Nicole Richie as they left the restaurant through the back door.
A police source told the Website that the paparazzo stated that Madden smacked her on the left side of her breast with the heel of his hand. The alleged victim told TMZ that she had a welt to prove her claim and that she needed a doctor to treat the injury.
The Beverly Hills P.D. told E! News that the woman’s report, filed Monday at around 6 p.m., stated that the altercation took place Saturday night.
A rep for Madden had no comment, but video captured by TMZ shows the “Girls and Boys” singer, with Richie in tow, brushing past the alleged victim. The gaggle of paparazzi surrounding the couple blocks from view what actually occurred at the moment of contact.
Meanwhile, the video does show Madden shoving a male photographer right before he and Richie climbed into the back seat of their waiting car.
Madden, who will be 28 on Sunday, kept a tight grip on Richie’s hand as they made their way through the maelstrom of flashbulbs, a pose he was striking with Hilary Duff up until a few months ago. He and Duff called it quits in November after more than two years of dating.
Good Charlottes’ fourth album, Good Morning Revival, is due out Mar. 27.
