Woman with small dog has big beer-tossing, table-slamming outburst at East Boston pub

A regular at Renegade's, 1004 Bennington St. in East Boston, exploded in uncontrollable rage one July evening when the restaurant's co-owner and manager blocked her from leaving to drive away with her tiny dog because she appeared under the influence and they didn't want her to get behind the wheel.

Before four officers finally managed to carry the 50-something woman into a holding cell across the harbor at BPD District A-1, she had tried to strangle both the co-owner and the manager, thrown a 12-ounce can of cream ale at other restaurant patrons, slammed two tables, forcing beer to slosh everywhere, and showered Black, Puerto Rican and White police officers with loud streams of racist expletives, police and the restaurant attorney told the Boston Licensing Board this morning. Her dog wound up at A-7 in East Boston awaiting pickup by a city animal-control officer for a trip to the city pound in Roslindale.

According to police and Renegade's attorney, the woman was a regular at the place, and had never caused any problems before. Around 3 p.m. on July 9, she came in, with her little dog and, over the course of three hours, consumed three cocktails and ate a meal at the bar, bar attorney Kristen Scanlon said.

At 5:56, Scanlon continued, she paid her tab. The co-owner, who knew she didn't live in East Boston and always drove to the pub, noticed she wasn't steady on her feet and called over the evening manager, who had just arrived for his shift, to discuss trying to convince her to give up her keys and instead get in an Uber.

At 5:59, Scanlon said, they tried that. The woman refused.

At 6:01, she returned to the bar.

At 6:02, she tried to leave again - as the co-owner, anticipating possible trouble, called 911, Scanlon said.

This time, the bouncer stood in the doorway to block her. He again asked for her keys and offered to call an Uber. "She grabbed him by the throat," BPD Ofr. James Sullivan-Venezia, one of numerous BPD officers who had to deal with her, told the board. The co-owner tried to get her off him. The woman responded by trying to strangle her. Other customers - there were only three others there, it was a slow evening - rushed over to try to separate the woman from the restaurant workers, Scanlon said.

Eventually, the co-owner managed to grab the woman's wrists and held her like that until police arrived soon after.

A cop took control of her wrists from the co-owner and tried to calm the woman down - and said he would release her wrists, but cautioned he would restain her if she acted up again, Sullivan-Venezia. She agreed and he let go - and then she promptly raised her arms as if to go back into battle mode. The officer cuffed her.

He and another officer began to bring her out to their cruiser. She went limp, forcing them to carry her. One officer opened the cruiser's rear door and as they began to get her in, she resisted, kicking the door and then wedging her foot out to keep them from closing her in, he said.

They eventually got the door shut in and drove her to the women's holding cell at A-1 - as she kept kicking the barred window separating her from them and the cruiser's rear window - and screaming racial epithets and threats against them. Somehow, she managed to get her arms, which had been cuffed behind her, in front of her. Sullivan-Venezia said.

Her verbal and physical outburst continued at booking, where the Black officers who had brought her in were replaced by Hispanic and White officers, for whom she found more insults to hurl as she tried, unsuccessfully, to kick in the plexiglass window that separated her from them. Booking finished, four officers had to carry her to the holding cell, Sullivan-Venezia said.

Meanwhile, back at Renegade's, officers had secured both her small dog, which caused no problems, as well as her gold watch and her purse, containing a large amount of cash, which an officer had to ferry over to A-1 to be put in storage with her other belongings.

Scanlon said the incident was totally out of the restaurant's control, that Renegades' has had no problems in the past in general, and that the woman's past behavior at a restaurant she had frequented had given no indication of her potentially seething rage.

The board decides Thursday whether it agrees or whether the incident could have been foreseeable and, if so, something that might warrant a sanction, based on a police citation for assault and battery, patron on employee, and assault and battery, patron on patron.