Tuesday, October 27th, 2009

Gabriela Pochinki, the Argentinian opera singer who was physically removed from Upper West Side restaurant Nice Matin (79th at Amsterdam) in handcuffs for disrupting others with her loud cellphone conversation, now states that the incident occurred because of Michael Jackson.  Pochinki was dining with her mother at the restaurant on Sunday, October 18th, when she received a phone call that she had been asked to perform at the Las Vegas premiere of the Michael Jackson documentary, This Is It.  According to her response to the New York Post, she was so excited that she couldn’t contain herself, resulting in several requests by the staff for her to quiet down, followed by a call to the police after she refused to leave.  The police subsequently took her to the station and booked her for trespassing and disorderly conduct.  Pochinko states, “I wasn’t really aware what was going on” and “I never thought speaking on a cellphone could get someone arrested.”  The judge for the case ruled that the charges will be dropped if she stays out of trouble until April.

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