New Jersey Nets star Jason Kidd is being sued by a 23-year-old model who accused him of groping and threatening her at a Manhattan nightclub two months ago.

An attorney for Kidd called the allegations "false" and "defamatory" and the lawsuit an attempt to get money from the All-Star guard, who earns almost $20 million a year.

The lawsuit, filed in Manhattan's state Supreme Court, says Kidd "battered and assaulted" the woman in the Lower West Side club Tenjune on Oct. 10 when he "grabbed her buttocks and crotch on multiple occasions."

"He kept staring at her and then went over and grabbed her butt," the woman's lawyer, Russell S. Adler, said yesterday. He said, "She told him 'Get off me! Get away from me!'" before bouncers pulled Kidd away.

Words were exchanged and Kidd grabbed the woman again, pushing her against a wall and putting his hand under her dress, Adler said.

A spokesman for the New York City Police Department confirmed Oct. 17 that the woman had filed a criminal complaint against Kidd, accusing him of the acts alleged in the lawsuit that was filed Thursday.

But Adler said officials from the district attorney's office told him late yesterday that prosecutors would not pursue charges against Kidd.

The woman is seeking unspecified compensatory and punitive damages.

Kidd's lawyer Paul Grand said, "This lawsuit is nothing more than a brazen and defamatory search for a payout."

A Nets spokesman said the team had no comment because the claims involve a pending legal matter.