A back-up forward for the Los Angeles Lakers basketball team was arrested and jailed early Sunday for hitting a pregnant waitress at a downtown International House of Pancakes while drunk, according to police.

Derrick Caracter, 22, was arrested about 1:18 a.m. Sunday at the IHOP in the 800 block of Canal Street, said New Orleans Police spokeswoman Shereese Harper.

Caracter, a 6-foot-9 forward who was in New Orleans for the playoffs series, was drunk and acting disorderly inside the restaurant, police said.

He "started grabbing and pulling" a pregnant waitress, prompting the manager to go outside and flag down a police officer, Harper said. The female officer tried to defuse the situation, Harper said, but Caracter remained obstinate. The officer arrested him.

He was handcuffed and taken to Orleans Parish jail and booked with one count of battery for hitting the waitress, as well as one count each of public intoxication and resisting arrest.

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*Editor's note: Upon further review, the waitress was not pregnant.