A high-flying cryptocurrency investor assaulted a woman at a New York City gourmet store for not exiting the premises as quickly as he would have liked, swore at her, then broke her shoulder in a second attack after she swore back at him, according to a civil lawsuit filed Friday in New York State Supreme Court.
On June 21, 2023, Peggy McGuinness was on the checkout line at Fairway Market in the Kips Bay section of Manhattan when, the suit says, she initially encountered “a man she now knows to be defendant, Shane Rodgers.”
Rodgers, the lawsuit reveals, is also facing criminal charges over the incident. He was served papers at home and at his Fifth Avenue office, which is identified in court filings as crypto payments processing platform PDX Global. A former investment banker, Rodgers in 2022 told The New York Times that he chose to park all of PDX Global’s assets in crypto rather than hard currency.
The Australian-born Rodgers does not have an attorney listed in court records and was unable to be reached on Friday. PDX representatives did not respond to a request for comment sent to the company’s general email address.
McGuinness, whose left hand was in a cast at the time, paid for her items at Fairway and headed for the door, the suit goes on. As she continued making her way out, McGuinness “felt a shopping cart hit her forcefully on her back,” the lawsuit states. Startled, she turned around to see Rodgers “right behind her, pushing that shopping cart,” the suit claims.
McGuinness “explained [to Rodgers] that she was moving slowly due to a cast on her left hand,” the lawsuit continues, adding that Rodgers then “cursed at plaintiff; plaintiff responded by cursing back.”
McGuinness then left the store, and began walking north on Second Avenue, according to the suit. About a block-and-a-half later, she was “suddenly and violently knocked from behind to the ground by… Rodgers,” the suit contends, stating that the blow and subsequent impact with the sidewalk caused McGuinness “a comminuted, displaced right humeral neck fracture with extension to the greater tuberosity,” which often requires surgery.
McGuinness also “sustained physical and psychological injuries, including… severe emotional distress; humiliation; fright; anger: depression and anxiety; a severe shock to her nervous system; and has been caused to suffer severe physical pain, [and] mental anguish,” according to the suit. It says that “some or all of these injuries are of a permanent and lasting nature,” that McGuinness has “been forced to abstain from the duties of her vocation,” and has had to lay out considerable sums of money to cover her medical bills.
“The aforesaid occurrence was caused by the willful, wanton, reckless and grossly negligent conduct of defendant,” the lawsuit states. It goes on to say that Rodgers was criminally charged on July 10, 2023, a little less than three weeks after the alleged attack, and is facing two counts of third-degree assault, a misdemeanor; one count of third-degree attempted assault, also a misdemeanor; and one count of second-degree harassment, a violation.
As of Friday, the criminal case remains pending, according to McGuinness’ lawsuit. She is asking a judge to award her punitive and exemplary damages, to be determined in court, for assault, battery, and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
