Angry barflies knocking downtown bar workers to the ground

A worker at JM Curley on Temple Place got punched to the ground in June by an angry customer who accused the bar of stealing his wallet, while a bouncer at Hennessy's of Boston found himself tumbled in a heap of people after he tried to escort a vaping customer out in August, police and bar managers told the Boston Licensing Board today.

According to police and bar accounts, workers at JM Curley were startled early on June 29, when one man chased another inside and knocked over the hostess stand - in what turned out to be the end of an argument sparked when the chaser refused to give the chaser a cigarette. But when they told the chaser he'd have to leave, he did without protest.

Only he returned about 20 minutes later. This time, a bartender recognized him as a guy who'd ordered a burger and a beer earlier in the evening, but hadn't paid for it. He brought the tab up, and the guy said he'd lost his wallet and needed to look for it.

Bar workers began looking under tables and the bar for it, found nothing and told the man - and told him he'd have to leave. Instead, they said, he began arguing with workers - and accused them of stealing his wallet. They told him they'd forget his tab, but he'd have to leave. He demanded to use the restroom. They refused.

One worker managed to get him outside - and the guy started punching him in the face, forcing him to the ground, where the guy then kicked him with his sneaker-clad foot - police said.

Around 12:45 a.m. on Aug. 3 at Hennessey's of Boston, a bouncer spotted a man vaping on the dance floor, in violation of city law, and went up to him, tapped him on the shoulder and told him he'd have to leave, police and a bar manager said. Instead, the man took another drag on his e-device and blew the smoke in the bouncer's face. Then, police said, two of the guy's friends jumped the bouncer and all four went down in a heap. The vaper, who wound up at the bottom of the pile, required a trip to the hospital for injuries suffered in the four-person fall.

The board also heard a case involving patron-on-patron violence at Empire, on Marina Park Drive on the South Boston Waterfront on April 1, in which a man sitting on a couch was punched hard enough to flip him over the couch and then punched again by two other men. The suspects claimed the man deserved it because he was acting "creepily" towards one of their female friends and yelled homophobic slurs at them.

The licensing board decides Thursday whether any of the incidents showed a disregard toward board rules about safety and, if so, whether they warrant punishment.