The new charges add another complication to an already controversial event. Watch video
PISCATAWAY -- One of the alleged assailants in a fight outside the Hale Center involving Rutgers wide receiver Leonte Carroo filed a cross-complaint Friday against an alleged victim and another woman, according to court records.
Maria Vega signed a complaint with the Piscataway Police Department alleging she was not the aggressor, but the victim in a fight after a football game on Sept. 12.
The court issued summonses on simple assault charges to Nichelle Hawkins and a woman who previously claimed that Carroo slammed her to the ground after she was attacked by Vega and others. Both women are Rutgers students, according to the school's directory.
The name of the other woman is being withheld because she is the alleged victim of domestic violence. Carroo had previously had a relationship with her, police said.
The woman, a recruiting ambassador, stood by her account after Carroo's lawyers said he never laid a hand on her. Police charged Carroo the night of the incident, and several days later charged Vega, Vega's father Juan, and Carroo's mother Lavern.
"It kind of surprises me -- the police took one side of all this and ran with it," Vega's attorney, Joe Mazraani, said.
RELATED: Rutgers' Leonte Carroo never touched assault victim, his lawyer says
One of the woman charged by Vega today told NJ Advance Media she felt she was being intimidated by the presence of Carroo's attorneys -- three of whom attended a Family Court hearing earlier this week on a temporary restraining order -- and by Vega's new complaint, which she said had no merit.
According to Vega's complaint, filed in Piscataway municipal court, Vega was not the aggressor, but the victim. Vega claims that Hawkins and three other people approached her outside the Hale Center in Piscataway. Hawkins allegedly said: "What the (expletive) are you looking at?" Vega said she responded: "This has nothing to do with you."
According to the complaint, Hawkins then smacked Vega in the face as others surrounded her and attacked her. The fight was broken up by her father, Leonte Carroo's friend Shane Turner, and security officials, Vega said.
Fifteen minutes later, and not far away, Vega said she was again attacked by the alleged victim and her friends. She said she was struck with hands, feet and purses. Vega was treated at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick, she said.
Carroo's attorneys have gone on the offensive to defend their client, releasing video that they said shows Carroo did nothing wrong and that Vega was attacked by a group of recruiting ambassadors.
Other people were involved in the assault, but his client hasn't been able to identify them, Mazraani said.
Hawkins could not be reached for comment.
"It's not really a brawl," Mazraani said. "It's five people surrounding one person. That's a beat-down."
The police's complaint against the Vegas and Lavern Carroo claims that witness statements, victim statements and video evidence constitute the probable cause to file charges. It is not clear what that video entails, and whether it's separate from the cellphone videos Carroo's attorneys already released.
Carroo is indefinitely suspended from the football program.
Mazraani said Vega's complaint will be treated much the same way as a complaint signed by a police officer.
The two people charged Friday will have a court date, possibly at the same time as Vega herself.
Robert Bianchi, a former Morris County prosecutor, said that cross-complaints like these are fairly routine in large fights.
The only practical difference is that police signed the complaint against the Carroos and the Vegas, while Vega herself signed the complaint against the two Rutgers students.
"It happens all the time," Bianchi said.
NJ Advance Media reporter Keith Sargent contributed to this report.
Brian Amaral may be reached at bamaral@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @bamaral44. Find NJ.com on Facebook.