Uphams Corner bar says man was carved with a machete outside, but the pool of blood inside that looked like somebody had tried to mop it up suggested a different story, police say

The Boston Licensing Board today called for a second hearing on an Aug. 29 incident at Dublin House, 7 Stoughton St. in Dorchester, that ended with a patron needing 47 stitches to close up the machete gash in his arm.

The board called for a second hearing on the incident not to better determine whether the man was sliced just inside the pub door, by the ATM, or whether somebody tried to carve him up just outside, but to consider more closely whether bar employees and managers failed to cooperate with police, or even call them, that night.

According to police officers who testified at a hearing on Tuesday, they arrived at the pub after a man walked into the Boston Medical Center emergency room shortly before 12:30 a.m. with a fresh, long gash down his arm that he said he'd gotten at Dublin House.

Police say they found numerous people milling about outside the bar, as well as blood on the sidewalk out front, with more on the sidewalk across the street. When they went inside, club employees said a couple of guys had gotten into an argument and that they had kicked both out - holding one inside for a bit to ensure the other one had left. There was no physical confrontation, let alone a dramatic arm slashing, inside, they told police.

But then an officer noticed blood inside the bar, by the ATM near the front door. Not only did it have what looked like a footprint in it, it "appeared to be tampered, as if someone had tried to clean up the blood," she said.

Also testifying was the man with the 47 stitches, who said he had most definitely been stabbed inside the bar. He said that two men had gotten into a fight, but that he wasn't one of them; he was only walking near them as he brought a drink to the DJ - and that at first, he didn't realize he'd been sliced as the machete guy left the bar.

"It happened suddenly," he said, adding, once he realized it was his blood flying everywhere, he got mad, and that he remains "flabbergasted and speechless by this."

Tuesday's hearing was on citations issued Dublin House by police for the assault and battery with a machete and for failing to shoo away loiterers from in front of the building. The board heard testimony to determine if the bar could have done anything to prevent those things and, if so, if it deserved any sort of sanction.

At today's meeting, however, board members agreed they were troubled by additional statements in formal police reports that bar personnel failed to call police about the incident and then failed to cooperate with police investigating it, and that they wanted to call the bar back before them to discuss that.

At Tuesday's hearing, the bar's attorney, William Gardiner, said bar employees didn't realize there was an incident, that they thought they had broken up a simple argument, which is not normally something that requires calling police.