Sorry if this isn't the appropriate forum.
My wife and I were recently eating at a somewhat new Italian restaurant and our food wasn't right. The manager was really rude and all we wanted was a refund. The manager continued to be hard to deal with and was taking her time refunding our money all the while talking loudly and badly about us. My wife had been calmly dealing with her and finally I spoke up and told her just to give us our damned money back so we could leave.
Suddenly I get a shove on the back of my shoulder and a big guy, mid to late 40s, probably 6'1" or taller and 350+ pounds asks me if I have a problem. I said something to the effect of we were just trying to get a refund and asked him his problem. He shoves me from the front (I'm only 36 years old, clean cut and 5'9" and 175 pounds). All of a sudden I feel an arm come from behind around the back of my neck from a different guy and I'm thrashing around struggling to breathe. 30 seconds or so go by I feel light headed being suffocated and finally get to where I can pop the guy in the head to let me go. He's still close coming toward me so I punch him a couple of times and his nose starts bleeding. He shoved my wife and got blood on her dress. He was about 6' or so and 180-190 pounds late 40s early 50s maybe.
The fight was broken up, we were asked to leave and were told they were calling the cops. We said we were calling them as well. The manager came outside and was still instigating and berating us with her finger in our face telling us to leave and locked the door.
Two policemen arrived and took my statement. They never asked to see my neck after I told them repeatedly I was choked and never asked if I needed paramedics. We had to call paramedics to later take me to the hospital after sitting out in the cold for over an hour.
It could have only been 10-15 minutes and the cop came back to me and said 6 or so eyewitness testimony conflicted with my story. He basically was in interrogation mode and loudly said "well if you were attacked why does the other guy have the bloody nose?!?" I was shocked but said well if a bigger guy is trying to choke me from behind I'm going to defend myself! I'm not thinking clearly at this point to force him to look at my neck. I asked why would I, a much smaller guy who's never been in any trouble attack two bigger guys for no reason? The other two guys aren't pressing charges apparently. Why not if I attacked them? The cops were laughing with them when they were done talking to them. A cop returned what looked like a long blade one of them was carrying under his arm. One of them had a pistol in his vehicle. I had no weapons.
The cops said there was an off duty cop (a very young rookie) in the restaurant and he was sitting at the farthest corner table with his back to us and the register. They said he told them it was our fault. I asked how he could hear and see everything that happened from the back of the restaurant? The officer wouldn't respond to my question. Well, let's see...probably two of the witnesses are the guys spouses, the manager, an employee probably afraid of losing his job, a lot of them probably friends, etc.
One cop interviewed my wife and she was so upset about me being attacked and her getting shoved they told her if she didn't be quiet they'd arrest her. I heard her her tell them twice the guy I punched assaulted her and got blood on her dress. He didn't put this in the report. We found this out later because she demanded to speak to the sergeant in charge and explained to him everything. The cop from the scene said "you never told me you claimed you were assaulted too." My wife said "if you wouldn't have been telling me to shut up and threatening to arrest me you may have gotten it correct." This cop compromised her case by not interviewing witnesses to see if anybody saw her get shoved.
At the ER they took scans and noted multiple abrasions to my neck but luckily found nothing major wrong. About 2 hours after I got out of the ER I went to the station to speak to the sergeant and we filed formal statements. He said he would go back to the business to see if they have any video (doubtful) and review his officer's audio recorders he said they are wearing at all times. He told me when the reports are ready Monday we can take them to the magistrate and file charges and get arrest warrants which we are doing. I don't know what to expect. I'm assuming they get to decide what the guys are charged with. Assault at minimum hopefully. I'm hoping one or both of them have records or have been in altercations before.
What is concerning is we are basically at the mercy of the prosecutor who I'm sure is friendly with the cops and maybe the restaurant and owner. The owner is a very wealthy Italian originally from New York with multiple restaurants around the area. It's not like we can hire our own attorney even if we had a lot of money to pay.
Sorry for the extremely long post and I appreciate in advance any advice you can give.
Ddhdhd
My wife and I were recently eating at a somewhat new Italian restaurant and our food wasn't right. The manager was really rude and all we wanted was a refund. The manager continued to be hard to deal with and was taking her time refunding our money all the while talking loudly and badly about us. My wife had been calmly dealing with her and finally I spoke up and told her just to give us our damned money back so we could leave.
Suddenly I get a shove on the back of my shoulder and a big guy, mid to late 40s, probably 6'1" or taller and 350+ pounds asks me if I have a problem. I said something to the effect of we were just trying to get a refund and asked him his problem. He shoves me from the front (I'm only 36 years old, clean cut and 5'9" and 175 pounds). All of a sudden I feel an arm come from behind around the back of my neck from a different guy and I'm thrashing around struggling to breathe. 30 seconds or so go by I feel light headed being suffocated and finally get to where I can pop the guy in the head to let me go. He's still close coming toward me so I punch him a couple of times and his nose starts bleeding. He shoved my wife and got blood on her dress. He was about 6' or so and 180-190 pounds late 40s early 50s maybe.
The fight was broken up, we were asked to leave and were told they were calling the cops. We said we were calling them as well. The manager came outside and was still instigating and berating us with her finger in our face telling us to leave and locked the door.
Two policemen arrived and took my statement. They never asked to see my neck after I told them repeatedly I was choked and never asked if I needed paramedics. We had to call paramedics to later take me to the hospital after sitting out in the cold for over an hour.
It could have only been 10-15 minutes and the cop came back to me and said 6 or so eyewitness testimony conflicted with my story. He basically was in interrogation mode and loudly said "well if you were attacked why does the other guy have the bloody nose?!?" I was shocked but said well if a bigger guy is trying to choke me from behind I'm going to defend myself! I'm not thinking clearly at this point to force him to look at my neck. I asked why would I, a much smaller guy who's never been in any trouble attack two bigger guys for no reason? The other two guys aren't pressing charges apparently. Why not if I attacked them? The cops were laughing with them when they were done talking to them. A cop returned what looked like a long blade one of them was carrying under his arm. One of them had a pistol in his vehicle. I had no weapons.
The cops said there was an off duty cop (a very young rookie) in the restaurant and he was sitting at the farthest corner table with his back to us and the register. They said he told them it was our fault. I asked how he could hear and see everything that happened from the back of the restaurant? The officer wouldn't respond to my question. Well, let's see...probably two of the witnesses are the guys spouses, the manager, an employee probably afraid of losing his job, a lot of them probably friends, etc.
One cop interviewed my wife and she was so upset about me being attacked and her getting shoved they told her if she didn't be quiet they'd arrest her. I heard her her tell them twice the guy I punched assaulted her and got blood on her dress. He didn't put this in the report. We found this out later because she demanded to speak to the sergeant in charge and explained to him everything. The cop from the scene said "you never told me you claimed you were assaulted too." My wife said "if you wouldn't have been telling me to shut up and threatening to arrest me you may have gotten it correct." This cop compromised her case by not interviewing witnesses to see if anybody saw her get shoved.
At the ER they took scans and noted multiple abrasions to my neck but luckily found nothing major wrong. About 2 hours after I got out of the ER I went to the station to speak to the sergeant and we filed formal statements. He said he would go back to the business to see if they have any video (doubtful) and review his officer's audio recorders he said they are wearing at all times. He told me when the reports are ready Monday we can take them to the magistrate and file charges and get arrest warrants which we are doing. I don't know what to expect. I'm assuming they get to decide what the guys are charged with. Assault at minimum hopefully. I'm hoping one or both of them have records or have been in altercations before.
What is concerning is we are basically at the mercy of the prosecutor who I'm sure is friendly with the cops and maybe the restaurant and owner. The owner is a very wealthy Italian originally from New York with multiple restaurants around the area. It's not like we can hire our own attorney even if we had a lot of money to pay.
Sorry for the extremely long post and I appreciate in advance any advice you can give.
Ddhdhd
