City board has to determine how two men's faces got bashed in outside a Fenway bar

UPDATE: Board orders two-day suspension.

The Boston Licensing Board decides Thursday what to do about wildly conflicting reports on how two brothers wound up in the emergency room with bruised, swollen and bleeding faces after an incident at Our House East early on Jan. 29.

David Cimino told the board this morning that he and his brother Michael were beaten and kicked to the ground by bouncers at the Gainsborough Street pub after they complained about the apparent theft of Michael's jacket from a coat rack and asked bar workers to call police. Cimino gave the board photos of his and his brother's swollen faces, taken the next morning after treatment at Brigham and Women's Hospital. A police report cited "a large lump in the middle of [David's] forehead" and facial swelling on David's.

But owner Henry Vara's attorney, Steven Frank, called the brothers liars and said the two received their injuries in falling to the curb after being escorted out at closing and then attempting to bull their way back into the bar around 2:15 a.m. Frank said Vara's establishments in Boston have an excellent reputation and that it is "beyond any pale of reasonable belief," that he would employ people who could do such damage. Frank said bar employees used only "bear hugs" to try to stop the brothers from punching them. "No punches were thrown," bar manager Timothy Moody said, adding it was Michael Cimino who started things by throwing a bottle of beer at a bar wall.

Board members Daniel Pokaski and Michael Connolly, however, said that even if they accepted the testimony of Vara's employees, the photos made it hard for them not to think that "excessive force" was used to quiet the brothers - especially since it was four club employees against the two brother, and David Cimino acknowledged being drunk after at least three beers at Conor Larkin's on Huntington Avenue (David Cimino said they had nothing to drink at Our House East and went only because Michael Cimino's girlfiend's mother - both women were with them as well - wanted to go dancing that night).

Several of the photos show a large amount of swelling and bruising under one of Michael Cimino's eyes. While Frank said that sort of injury could come from hitting a curb - especially if there was also debris there - Pokaski didn't buy it. "The damage itself is not self inflicted," he said.

"No one in this city has the right to touch anybody, period, unless it's self defense," he said, adding, "Even if I buy and this board buys this story that it was self defense, I think there was excessive force here."

Both sides agreed that whatever happened happened because Michael Cimino's jacket was missing when his girlfriend went to get their coats - and her mother's - and that a waitress summoned Moody to talk to the brothers.

Then, David Cimino said, Moody told them to get out. David Cimino said the brothers were upset because it was 10 degrees outside and because his brother's jacket contained his car keys - without which he couldn't get the medicine he needed for his Crohn's Disease. Although Michael Cimino's girlfriend's mother had a cell phone in her car, parked around the street, he said he wanted the bar to call 911 to ensure a faster response, since a cell phone wouldn't connect to Boston Police's 911.

Moody, however, said he offered to help the Ciminos look for the jacket - but that he decided to cut their time inside short when they grew increasingly agitated and Michael Cimino threw a bottle of beer at the wall. "They were clearly agitated, aggressive," doorman Alex Kingsley told the board.

The brothers and the women were escorted outside without incident, both sides agreed.

David Cimino acknowledged he "was placed gently onto the sidewalk," but said his brother was thrown onto the sidewalk. But then, he said, somebody grabbed him, pulled him between two cars and all of a sudden he was being beaten and kicked. "I was in a fetal position just trying to cover my face." He said Michael's girlfriend somehow pulled the bouncers off him.

Moody, though, said once outside it was the brothers who started throwing punches. He said bar workers managed to separate themselves from the brothers and get back inside after only 40 seconds, but then he heard "glass break outside."

Moody acknowledged he never called police, as required by the bar's liquor license. "I didn't, I should have, that was a mistake."

But Frank said that paled compared to the "complete fabrication" of the Cimino story. Frank said the Cimino story was full of inconsistencies, such as saying the girlfriend was able to pull several guys off David Cimino. "I would suggest that's patently absurd," he said. He added that the initial issue, the stolen coat was, while unfortunate, not the bar's fault since there are signs around the establishment warning that management is not responsible for stolen property.

The licensing board could do nothing, formally warn the bar or suspend its license for one or more days. Board member Suzanne Ianella did not attend today's hearing.