A man walks out of a bar and gets smashed in the head with a beer bottle, but why?

The Boston Licensing Board on Thursday will have to decide between two completely different accounts of how a man came to be smashed in the head with a bottle after he walked out of J.J. Foley's in the South End early one August morning: Was he jumped by a Hispanic man his friend had gotten ejected from the bar for putting his hand up a woman's skirt, or was he attacked by two Hispanic men who were never in the bar but who happened to be walking down the street after he left and at whom he'd screamed an ethnic epithet?

The bottle-smashed man and his pal testified first at a licensing-board hearing this morning. They said they were sitting at a table near the East Berkeley Street bar's jukebox near closing on Aug. 12 when they noticed two Hispanic men creeping on the table next to theirs. And then, they said, one of the men put his hand up the skirt of a woman at the table and grabbed her leg. The man's friend said he complained to bar staff, who immediately ejected the two creepers. The friend said he was tempted to try to beat the leg grabber - the woman herself was just frozen in place - but instead decided to notify staff.

Then, he said, he and the man with the soon-to-be forehead laceration left 15 or 20 minutes later - only to be jumped outside by the two Hispanic men, who'd been waiting for them, armed with beer bottles. The pal said he managed to wrestle his opponent to the ground and get the bottle away from him - and then turned around to see that the other guy had gotten the best of his friend and smashed him in the forehead. A bar staffer stood in the doorway impassively watching the whole thing and offering no aid, they said. The man with the fresh cut said he got himself to the hospital, where he spent seven or eight hours waiting for and then getting stitched up.

Bar owner Jerry Foley and his lawyer - and son - Patrick Foley said that is not what happened at all.

Patrick Foley said that while the bar does serve Hispanic and Chinese workers from nearby restaurants, there were no Hispanics in the bar at all that night. In fact, they said, the two guys who testified before them were the troublemakers - with the guy about to be smashed in the head going around to women "creepily whispering in their ears." And they were the ones bar staff made leave, the Foleys said.

Once outside, the Foleys said, the two walked towards Harrison Avenue. When they spotted two Hispanic men walking in their direction - but on the other side of the street - the man about to require hospital care yelled "You fucking spics, get out of this country," they said. Jerry Foley, who was at the door of the bar, said he did not see the actual fight. "It did not happen in front of our bar, it happened down the street."

The hearing grew contentious, with the injured man's pal leaving at one point after declaring he couldn't stand to hear lies. The man who got the injuries began arguing with the Foleys as Jerry Foley testified - he yelled from the back his car was in front of the bar, not on Harrison - prompting two BPD detectives in the room to stand up and tell him to be quiet.

At the end of the hearing, the two men left. The Foleys waited in the hearing room for several minutes, hoping to avoid a confrontation in the hallway outside. When they did leave, a BPD detective followed them out, just to make sure nothing happened.

Following the bar incident, Boston Police issued a citation to the bar for assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, which is what triggered today's hearing. At a meeting on Thursday, the licensing board will decide whether J.J. Foley's could have done something to prevent whatever it was from happening, and if so, what sort of punishment, if any, to levy.