Las Vegas- A Las Vegas man claims he was nearly killed by thugs after he refused to surrender nude photos of actor Jamie Foxx.
Reps for the "Collateral" star say he had nothing to do with the alleged attack on construction worker Mark Pithian, 40, who claims he "found" the photos in a trash container next to Foxx's Vegas home.
According to a battery complaint Pithian filed Aug. 6 with Las Vegas Metropolitan Police, several men forced their way into his apartment in July and "confronted him about supposed naked pictures of [Foxx]."
"When [Pithian] denied having possession of said pictures," Pithian told police, "the situation quickly escalated from a verbal argument and resulted in furniture inside the apartment being thrown" at him.
Reached at a Vegas hospital yesterday, Pithian told the Daily News that five men took part in the alleged attack. "I've been in and out of the hospital five times since then," he said. "I've just had 32 staples removed from my head."
Pithian, who says he was part of a work crew repairing water damage at Foxx's house, said he removed a box with more than 90 home snapshots from the trash bin outside the house.
The News has viewed some of the photos, which appear to show the actor engaging in sexual activity by himself and with a woman. Pithian said his alleged attackers discovered just a few of those photos at his apartment.
Foxx spokeswoman Leslie Sloane said, "These were private photos taken several years ago. They are stolen property."
Pithian said he hadn't tried to sell the photos before he was attacked and claims he later offered to give the pictures back to Foxx, 36. But he's now peddling them to the supermarket tabloids through agent David Hans Schmidt. "I wish I had never found them," said Pithian. "But now I want some kind of compensation."
Sloane questioned Pithian's credibility. "For him to insinuate that Jamie Foxx had anything to do with this incident is false and outrageous," she said. "It's a malicious allegation."
Spokesmen for Las Vegas Metropolitan Police and the Las Vegas district attorney's office had no comment yesterday on Pithian's case.
