Board not buying the idea that a North Station club has no blame for brawls of angry costumed people on the street outside after a Halloween party

Boston Licensing Board members today excoriated the owners of a North Station club for the way they handled - or didn't - street-clogging melees that erupted after a pre-Halloween bash that ended with two cops and several brawlers injured, three people facing criminal charges, and with every single District A-1 cop flooding the scene, aided by state troopers and Transit Police officers.

"It was a complete nightmare that happened that night," board Chairwoman Kathleen Joyce said.

But the board took no formal action on any possible sanction against Big Night Live, because its veteran Boston operators - Big Night Entertainment - did not get the board any of the video it requested at a Tuesday hearing until just a few minutes before the board was scheduled to vote this morning, and that what video it did provide did not appear to show exactly how more than 1,000 people exited the club after a "Yelloween" party ended early on Oct. 19.

The board also said it wants Big Night to provide a detailed "dispersal" plan for how it empties out guests from the space - which can hold more than 1,600 people - and what its security arrangements are with a security company hired by the place's landlord, Boston Properties, for after-hours patrols of the area, as well as more video than the place handed over to the board this morning.

At Tuesday's hearing, Big Night officials said that after they clear out the club and a pavilion outside, their security guards retreat inside and leave any issues on the sidewalk up to that other company - and that on the night in question, dispersal went well and besides, who knows if the people who wound up in a series of brawls up and down Causeway Street starting around 2:45 a.m. were even Big Night patrons, and, well, there's no evidence they were.

Joyce, however, said today she didn't buy it, at least not based on the evidence she's seen so far. At Tuesday's hearing, a BPD sergeant testified that not only did the people he talked to that night say they'd come from Big Night Live, many were wearing costumes, on a night that only Big Night Live was holding a Halloween event.

Joyce said she cannot recall another licensing hearing where so many police officers - six - testified in a single Zoomed hearing, and that on what video Big Night did provide that she was able to view, "I couldn't even count" how many police officers were on scene.

"Something happened," Joyce said. "I don't know what that is yet, but I don't think dispersal went well."

And even aside from the fact that many of the street fighters were in costume, board member Liam Curran said, Big Night had no way of knowing that the brawlers were not their customers, because, as its own managers testified, they all retreated inside before the trouble began.

Board members said they were surprised that Big Night would say its responsibilities ended at the sidewalk, when the company has operated in Boston for years and knows the board's requirement that venues ensure sidewalks and other areas immediately adjacent to them are peaceful, especially at closing timt.

"They know how we operate," board member Keeana Saxon said. Saxon and the other two board members agreed that also extended to providing the information and video the board had asked for on Tuesday - and not waiting until the very last minute to do so.

The board gave Big Night until Tuesday to provide more video - showing all facets of the exodus of patrons that night - its plan for handling that, any internal reports by club managers on the incident and a copy of any agreement on handling post-closing security with Boston Properties' security company.