Hours after her arrest for allegedly punching a woman at a New York club, Lindsay Lohan went into a meltdown at a hotel on the Upper East Side, insisting she was the innocent victim and it “was a setup.”
Sources tell Page Six that once she was sprung from police cells by lawyer Mark Jay Heller, after allegedly clocking Florida psychic Tiffany Eve Mitchell in the VIP section of club Avenue in Chelsea, Lohan headed to the hotel to escape paparazzi.
A source said, “She was crying and kept asking, ‘Why does this happen to me? This is a setup! I don’t deserve this . . . It’s not my fault!’ ” The Post reported yesterday that the altercation happened after Lohan accused the Florida blonde of stealing her sister Ali’s purse, containing $10,000 in cash that Lindsay gave her.
Our source tells us that, at the hotel, “Lindsay was saying, ‘I was trying to find out who stole Ali’s purse! I gave her the money for my family, to pay for my brother’s school fees!’ ”
The source adds, “Lindsay says she never hit the girl. She just went over to find if they had her sister’s purse. They were looking around the area, but the girl was sitting at the table, and some pushing started. Lindsay says the purse was never found. She’s desperate to find where the money is.” But another source told us the bag was indeed returned.
While Lohan was melting down, her alleged victim was lawyering up. Mitchell yesterday hired Gloria Allred, who said, “I can confirm that I am representing Tiffany Mitchell, and I have no further comment at this time.”
We’re told the club’s closed-circuit TV is fuzzy and doesn’t give immediate or clear proof that Lohan, who was arrested on suspicion of third-degree assault, punched Mitchell.
“I am completely confident that this case will be concluded favorably and that Lindsay will be totally exonerated,” attorney Heller said in a statement. If prosecuted, Lohan could get jail time if a judge finds she violated her 2011 probation on a shoplifting rap. Her rep didn’t get back to us.