Woman accused of stabbing tourist inside NYC steakhouse, piercing his lung, acted in self-defense, parent claim: ‘Sweetest person you’d want to meet’

A woman accused of stabbing a tourist inside a posh Midtown Manhattan steakhouse, piercing his lung, told cops she doesn’t remember the attack — and her parents told the Daily News she was only defending herself after being punched.

Joan Thompson was celebrating her 41st birthday with her cousin by visiting Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse on W. 51st St. for the first time Friday night.

The 24-year-old victim, eating with his wife as part of a large party at another table and a stranger to Thompson, needed surgery after he was stabbed in the back in an attack prosecutors say was partially captured on video.

Police said Thompson flew into a rage Friday night after the victim’s wife made snide remarks about the service and the waitstaff at the W. 51st St. steakhouse.

Video taken by another patron showed Thompson standing on a chair or bench, gripping the steak knife and shouting, assistant District Attorney Samantha McCarthy said during Thompson’s arraignment Saturday in Manhattan Criminal Court.

She can be seen repeatedly plunging the knife downward, and the blade connected with the victim once, going through the flesh of his back and piercing his lung, prosecutors say.

But Thompson’s father claimed his daughter was punched in the face and harassed as the mayhem broke out around her, based on what his daughter and her cousin told him.

Workers at the restaurant who did not want to be named but who spoke to witnesses told the Daily News that diners at the victim’s table insulted the suspect and her cousin and punched the suspect before the stabbing. They insulted Thompson and her cousin’s clothing, calling them prostitutes, the workers claim.

“That’s exactly how it started,” Carlos Stapleton, 84, said Sunday. “These people left their table to come to my daughter’s table to start harassing them for nothing. He put his hands on her is what I was told.”

He said another woman from the group at the next table also approached and started harassing his daughter.

“My daughter told them, ‘We’re not here to fight — we came here to have dinner,’” he said. “My daughter got the worst of it and she’s the victim protecting herself.”

The woman who approached Thompson threatened her, saying, ‘I’m going to bust your nose,’” Thompson’s mother, Barbara Stapleton, 64, claims.

“If she’s protecting herself, why is she in jail and they’re not in jail?” the mother said. “That’s cruel to me.”

Thompson, is charged with assault, was ordered held on $40,000 bail. Prosecutors argued that while she has no previous criminal record, the fact that she fled the restaurant indicates she’s a flight risk.

“She’s not OK,” Carlos Stapleton said of his daughter. “She’s highly upset because this has never happened before. She was never in any trouble at all.”

Thompson fled but police were able to identify her from the table reservation and arrested her later that night, prosecutors said.

She told police she remembered being in the restaurant and getting into an argument but didn’t remember the stabbing itself, McCarthy said. But Thompson acknowledged she was the woman in the video and that it appeared to show her stabbing the victim, according to the criminal complaint.

The victim, who police said hails from Milford, Mass., was released from New York-Presbyterian Hospital Weill Cornell after surgery, prosecutors said.

Thompson’s mother said she spoke to her daughter from Rikers Island.

“She said, ‘Mommy, I didn’t mean to do it but I was scared,’” the mom said. “She’s very scared. I don’t think they should have taken her to Rikers. I’m furious that she’s at Rikers.”

The family was still trying to pull together enough money to get her released on bond Sunday.

“It was unjust. For her being a victim, yes it was unfair,” her father said of the bail amount. “It’s hard. It hit everybody unexpected. It’s hard on the family.”

Thompson is a mother of two young children and a Costco supervisor.

“Joanie’s not a violent person, whatsoever,” her mother said. “She’s the sweetest person you’d want to meet and I’m not just saying that because I’m her mother. Everybody who meets my baby says she’s a beautiful person.”

With Emma Seiwell