“Shahs of Sunset ”star Mike Shouhed sued by ex-fiancée for alleged assault and battery
The Bravo star’s former fiancée Paulina Ben-Cohen claims she was "viciously, brutally, and repeatedly assaulted and battered" by him in 2022.
Mike Shouhed, one of the original stars of Bravo’s Shahs of Sunset, is being sued by his former fiancée over an alleged incident of domestic violence that took place in 2022.
According to court documents obtained by PEOPLE, Shouhed’s ex, Paulina Ben-Cohen, is suing the 45-year-old reality star for alleged assault and battery, gender violence, and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
In the complaint, Ben-Cohen details a March 27, 2022 incident at her Los Angeles-area home, in which she claims that she was “viciously, brutally, and repeatedly assaulted and battered” by her former fiancé in a bedroom and her children’s playroom.
When the incident first occurred, Shouhed was arrested for alleged intimate partner violence. He was released the same day on a $50,000 bond. According to documents obtained by Entertainment Weekly, L.A. City Attorney Mike Feuer leveled 14 criminal charges against the reality TV personality, including four counts of domestic battery, two counts of attempting to dissuade a victim from making a report, and six weapons charges. Shouhed pled not guilty to all counts.
In the lawsuit, Ben-Cohen wrote that the alleged incident occurred after she put her children to bed. The duo were in the midst of an argument, which escalated when Shouhed allegedly called her a “horrible mother” and a “f---ing whore.” She claims that she asked him to leave, but he refused. Ben-Cohen says she then began packing his belongings, asking that he “not make this more difficult than it already was.”
She alleges that Shouhed then “forcefully grabbed hair and shoulder and violently threw her to the ground" while she attempted to remove his clothes from a rack. The documents also include security footage screenshots of the alleged incident.
Per the complaint, Ben-Cohen claims that Shouhed continued the assault and “struck her in the face” and “tried to suffocate her.” She also alleges that the former Bravo star threatened to kill her, claiming “he had a hitman who would put her away.” The altercation continued in the children’s playroom.
"Nearly four minutes after [Shouhed] initiated his series of vicious and brutal attacks on plaintiff, this harrowing incident finally came to an end…," the complaint states. "After Shouhed went upstairs to retrieve one of his firearms, the police were called, came to the residence and arrested Shouhed.” Ben-Cohen is seeking unspecified damages and punitive damages in the complaint.
A representative for Shouhed did not immediately respond to EW’s request for comment.
Shouhed was an original cast member of Shahs of Sunset, a reality series that centered on a group of six Persian American friends in Beverly Hills as they juggled their social lives, careers, and family demands. The series premiered on Bravo in 2012 and ran for nine seasons.
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Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly.