A chef who was hit by Lindsay Lohan as she drove her Porsche in Manhattan claims the starlet was “slurring” her words and “smelled like alcohol.”

“They acted like I was nothing,” cook Jose Rodriguez told the Daily News hours after the early Wednesday encounter. “That no one could touch her because she was rich and powerful.”

The troubled “Mean Girls” actress was charged with leaving the scene of an accident two hours after the 12:30am incident in an alley between the Maritime and Dream hotels in Chelsea. She was given a desk appearance ticket.

Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said police don’t think Lohan – a rehab regular who is on probation – was intoxicated, but no Breathalyzer test was performed.

An NYPD source who saw surveillance video of the incident said Lohan did not appear drunk and that Rodriguez didn’t make that claim to officers who responded.

The source said the contact between the car and Rodriguez was “slight,” and that he ran down the ramp after being struck.

Lohan’s spokesman, Steve Honig, called the incident “much ado about nothing.”

“We are confident this matter will be cleared up in the coming weeks and the claims being made against Lindsay will be proven untrue,” he said.

The driveway where the accident happened serves as the entrance to the Electric Room, an exclusive club inside Dream.

Rodriguez said he had just left Bottega, the restaurant where he works at the adjacent Maritime, and was walking on the underground ramp when he “saw this car come real quick and hit me."

"I was in so much pain,” he said. “I fell to the side."

He said when Lohan emerged from the Porsche Cayenne, “I asked, ‘Why did you do that?’

“She said, ‘You have to get out of the way.’ She told me I have to move.”

"She was slurring,” he added. “She smelled like alcohol real bad.”

Rodriguez said one of the men in the car moved Lohan from the driver’s seat into the back and then told him there was “no problem.”

“He kept saying, ‘We have to move the car,’ and for me to move,” the chef said.

“They drove off, like it didn’t matter.”

The police source said the video shows Lohan blinked her headlights to catch the attention of about eight people in her path, but that Rodriguez walked right in front of the Porsche.

“There’s contact – slight contact,” the source said. “Then he realizes what’s happened. He doesn’t go down. He takes off after the car... You see him on the driver’s side talking to her.”

The source said Lohan and the others switched seats, then the car backed out — leaving Rodriguez to call 911.

He was taken to Bellevue Hospital, where he said doctors told him he has torn tendons and gave him morphine for the pain.

It’s unclear where Lohan went, but Electric Room security called cops when she returned at 2:30 a.m. She was arrested, taken to the 10th Precinct stationhouse, where a lawyer met her.

She was released at 5:30 a.m. and is due back in court Oct. 23.

Her car was later spotted outside the Bowery Hotel, where her ex-girlfriend, DJ Samantha Ronson, has been staying. A parking ticket was on its windshield when a valet drove it away.

Rodriguez insisted that he didn’t recognize Lohan after he was hit.

“I didn't know who she was until people told me. I don't know why she couldn't just do the right thing,” he said.

In addition to filing a complaint with the police, the chef made an incident report with Maritime security in which he said “the female appeared disoriented.”

"Mr. Rodriguez took pictures with his cell phone of the vehicle license plate but was prevented from taking pictures of the individuals by Dream Hotel security," the report says.

Lohan gave police a California address, and the Porsche has Florida plates, but she’s reportedly looking for a pad in Manhattan with her assistant, Gavin Doyle.

Last week, LiLo was staying at the Plaza, where sources said she threw a wild party Friday after appearing earlier in the night at Chez Andre and 10AK.

And Lohan has been haunting the Electric Room, where School of Visual Arts student Anastasia Graff, 21, saw her two weeks ago.

“I was sitting next to her. She seemed normal, just relaxing. She burned me with a cigarette. It wasn't a big deal. It was an accident. It could happen to anyone," Graff said.

But experts say the latest run-in could cause major legal problems for Lohan — who has two DUI convictions on her record and is on probation in connection with a necklace theft.

“If this allegation is credible, it could trigger an avalanche of issues in California, including a probation violation hearing and potentially jail,” said Trent Copeland, a Los Angeles defense lawyer who does not represent Lohan.

He said a jail sentence wouldn’t be the typical outcome, but noted that Lindsay’s many scrapes with the law may have exhausted her judge’s patience.

“Judges are human beings,” Copeland said. “They hear the news and see the stories of starlets out of control and the concern is that at some point these people may injure someone.”

Lohan’s father, Michael, who’s had his own legal problems along with a tense relationship with his daughter, defended her.

“I think this is all a setup,” he said of Rodriguez’s allegations. “I love my daughter and I believe her 100%.”


- New York Daily News