Blunt discussion leads to melee outside Park Plaza bar

A guy who tried to get into M.J. O'Connor's, 27 Columbus Ave., with a lit blunt one night last fall responded to a doorman's request to put it out by extinguishing it - and then punching a bar worker in the face, knocking him unconscious and sparking a brawl between bar workers and his pals that police had to break up, a BPD sergeant and a bar attorney said today.

Police and the bar appeared before the Boston Licensing Board this morning for a hearing on the Sept. 21 incident.

According to BPD Sgt. William Gallagher, several men arrived at the bar around midnight, one with a lit blunt. His punching out a bar worker immediately led to a brawl as the man and his friends began swinging away. Gallager said that, according to one witness, one of the pot guy's friends somehow got hold of a bar stool and began swinging it around. But bar workers regrouped and appeared to be gaining the upper hand - they knocked down one of the guy's friends and were restraining him between two cars - when police arrived and broke things up.

Gallager said that, aside from the worker knocked unconscious, no bar workers were seriously hurt. He added that the man knocked betwwen the two cars suffered an ankle injury.

The board decides Thursday whether the bar could have done anything to prevent the incident and, if so, whether any punishment is merited for the citation for "assault and battery patron on employee outside premises."