Don Johnson Upset About Allegations

Thursday, February 22nd 2001, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) â€” ``Nash Bridges'' star Don Johnson accused the San Francisco Chronicle of treating him unfairly in columns about a police report alleging that he made lewd comments to a woman in a sushi bar.

On his Web site, www.donjohnson.com, the actor posted letters from his attorney and spokesman lambasting Chronicle columnists Phillip Matier and Andrew Ross.

Johnson initially wanted the letters published as a large ad in the Chronicle, but decided Tuesday to withdraw the ad and publish them on the Web site instead.

Chronicle executives said they would have rejected the ad, which would have cost $18,000.

Phil Bronstein, the Chronicle's executive editor, said the columnists' reporting was solid. He also said the ad suggests that Matier and Ross intentionally withheld the woman's name in the Feb. 7 article, while it was police who did not release the name.

``We really don't want to accept an ad that is knowingly false,'' Bronstein told The Associated Press.

Matier and Ross first reported that the unidentified woman told police Johnson grabbed her on Jan. 20 and made sexually explicit comments when she went to the restroom at Mas Sake. Their Feb. 9 column also reported that at least two other women described similar sexual advances.