Bar Fight

A Superior Court jury convicted a former Mount Holly councilman and his friend yesterday of hate crimes for their roles in a racially motivated bar fight two years ago. Robert Byham, 40, of Mount Holly, was convicted of two counts of bias assault and two counts of bias harassment after the jury found he used a racial slur in front of two African American men and then tried to head-butt one and swing at the other after they angrily confronted him....

DAVID R. Gillespie, what were you thinking? Why, oh why, did you file a complaint in 1998 with the New Jersey Division of Civil Rights claiming a bar's "Ladies Night" promotion - free admission and discounted drinks for women - discriminated against men? Did you get rejected at the Coastline Bar, Dave? Did some awful woman hurt your feelings so much that you lashed out at having to pay a $5 cover charge and full price for drinks? The civil rights division agreed with Gillespie, and deemed "Ladies Night" unlawful.

Kansas City Chiefs kicker Lawrence Tynes was charged yesterday with breaking a bouncer's nose in a bar fight, a felony with a maximum penalty of 3 1/2 years in prison. Tynes, the NFL's first Scottish-born player, turned himself in yesterday morning and made his first appearance in Pierce County (Wis.) Circuit Court on one felony count of substantial battery and one count of misdemeanor battery. He was released on a $15,000 signature bond. He practiced yesterday. Practice broke up before word of the criminal charges got out. The alleged fight took place early Sunday morning at a bar in River Falls, Wis., where the Chiefs have their training camp.

Police are investigating a killing outside a West Oak Lane nightclub earlier this morning. Around 1:15 a.m., police found a 30-year-old man shot in the shoulder outside Whispers Inn on the 7600 block of Ogontz Avenue, said police spokeswoman Officer Christine O'Brien. It appears the shooting developed from a fight started inside the lounge that spilled onto the sidewalk. The victim was transported to Albert Einstein Medical Center where he was pronounced dead at 1:29 a.m., O'Brien said.

WAYNESBORO, Pa - A Pennsylvania borough councilman is facing charges stemming from a fight inside a West Virginia bar that left a man severely injured. Waynesboro council president Craig Lynn Newcomer was charged Monday with malicious wounding in the February fight at the Dirty Dawg Saloon in Martinsburg, W.Va. Investigators say Newcomer was with members of his motorcycle club when a fight broke out. When it ended a 44-year-old Virginia man was left with skull and facial fractures and bruising on his brain.

"CELEBRITY CIRCUIT," a non-news division of CBS, reports that Adam Lambert and his Finnish "Big Brother" boyfriend Sauli Koskinen have made up after causing a gay bar brawl (that's a phrase you don't hear too often) in Helsinki. Both were detained by Finnish police early yesterday. There is no truth to the rumor that the fight started when Sauli mocked Adam's runner-up finish on "American Idol" when he won "Big Brother. " Adam tweeted the real reason for the incident: "Jetlag+Vodka=blackout," he wrote.

A West Grove man convicted of smashing a beer bottle across a man's face in a bar fight nearly five years ago was sentenced to 90 days' probation on Tuesday before Chester County Judge M. Joseph Melody Jr. Stephen Joseph Golden, 41, of the first block of Tulip Lane in West Grove, was convicted of harassment as part of a plea agreement. Melody also fined Golden $100. Golden struck and cut Jeffrey Douglas McKinstry, of the 500 block of West Linden Street in Kennett Square, on the right side of the face with a beer bottle in March 1987 at the Anvil Inn on Route 1 in East Marlborough Township, according to court papers.

South Carolina starting quarterback Blake Mitchell was arrested after a bar fight early yesterday morning and has been suspended from playing. Mitchell was booked at Richland County jail for simple assault, a misdemeanor, police said. He was released yesterday afternoon following a bond hearing. A Columbia (S.C.) police report said the 21-year-old Mitchell punched Kylan Ertzberger in the left eye during a fight in a bar near the university early yesterday. Ertzberger told police Mitchell approached him about 1:45 a.m. and "initiated a verbal confrontation.

Three Minnesota Vikings players were arrested after a fight outside a downtown Minneapolis bar early yesterday. Vikings coach Mike Tice confirmed to the Associated Press the arrests of linebackers E.J. Henderson and Mike Nattiel, and tight end Steve Farmer. "I have not been able to find out anything concrete yet," Tice said. The three players were arrested along with a fourth man after a fight outside a nightclub. Troy Jones, 32, of Brooklyn Center, Mich., was beaten and taken to a Minneapolis hospital.

The mismatch was apparent to the judge and just about everyone else in the courtroom yesterday as Brian K. Jones pleaded guilty to aggravated assault and other charges stemming from a Dec. 13 attack on Robert Zokovitch. Jones, 23, of Morrisville, at 6-foot-5 and 245 pounds, stood head and shoulders above everyone else - even coming eye-to-eye with Bucks County Court Judge John Rufe, who usually seems to tower over defendants during hearings from the courtroom's elevated dais. Jones, a construction laborer, is the picture of health, with a solid physique, neatly trimmed beard, and long, light-brown ponytail.

MEXICO CITY - Malcolm Shabazz, 28, grandson of political activist Malcolm X, died in Mexico City after a bar fight, Mexican authorities said Friday. City prosecutors are investigating the attack that sent Shabazz to a hospital, where he died Thursday of blunt-force trauma injuries. U.S. officials confirmed that Shabazz was killed in Mexico City. Much like his grandfather, Shabazz spent his youth in and out of trouble. At 12, he set a fire at his grandmother's apartment, a blaze that resulted in the death of Malcolm X's widow, Betty Shabazz.

HERE'S A LOOK at some dumb criminals who have implicated themselves online: -An Indiana man, arrested on assault charges after a 2009 bar fight in New York, fled before his sentencing. But Chris Crego left plenty of cyber clues for cops to catch him: He posted his wanted poster on his Facebook page, along with his current hometown, employer and work hours. U.S. Marshals easily tracked him down, and police posted this thank-you note to Crego's Facebook page: "It was due to your diligence in keeping us informed that now you are under arrest.

JOHN "BIG RED" Huttick lost his left eye in a bar fight in Burholme, then endured a mistrial when his fake eye popped out on the witness stand during his attacker's trial last month. On Wednesday, Huttick dealt with more bad news when a Philadelphia jury found Matthew Brunelli not guilty of aggravated assault in the August 2011 fight in the parking lot of the New Princeton Tavern on Rising Sun Avenue. The verdict came after a five-day trial during which the prosecution alleged that Brunelli, 23, stabbed Huttick, 48, in the eye, and the defense alleged that Brunelli punched Huttick in self-defense after being attacked by him and two other men. The fight erupted after Brunelli and his girlfriend were followed out of the bar by two of Huttick's friends, including off-duty Philadelphia police officer Brian Clerkin, said defense attorney Eileen Hurley.

IN THE blink of an eye Wednesday, an aggravated-assault trial was derailed on its first day after the victim's glass eye popped out on the witness stand. Right into his hand. Jurors gasped as a weeping John "Big Red" Huttick caught his fake peeper. Defense attorney Eileen Hurley demanded a mistrial, which Common Pleas Judge Robert P. Coleman granted. "It was shocking and unexpected. He caught it in his hand and sort of held it there," Hurley said. The mistrial was needed because, she said, "something as disruptive as that is a bell that could not be unrung.

NEW YORK - Some travel to the annual Pennsylvania Society event to test the waters for political campaigns, and some to seal deals or buttonhole lawmakers. Gov. Corbett came this year - midway through his first term - to assert himself as the state's de facto leader and position himself for a second term in 2014. Speaking to several hundred people, mostly business leaders, in the ornate ballroom of the historic Metropolitan Club on the Upper East Side, Corbett said he would soon present long-awaited plans to deal with pension costs, liquor-store privatization, and the state's transportation system.

HE IS, PERHAPS, the most beloved Philadelphia Eagle; maybe the most beloved Philadelphia athlete. Not the best Eagle; that would be Steve Van Buren. Nor the most significant; that would be Reggie White. And not the best Philadelphia athlete, or most significant; not with a pantheon like Wilt Chamberlain, Julius Erving, Allen Iverson, Steve Carlton, Mike Schmidt, Bobby Clarke. But Brian Dawkins is beloved. Universally, beloved. His number will be retired Sunday night against the Giants, and the Eagles had better have catastrophe insurance on the Linc, because the crowd might just shake apart the stadium.

MOST DAYS, Lt. Ray Evers is doling out information to the media about crime victims. But the spokesman for the Philadelphia Police Department said he recently had the unusual experience of being a victim himself. Evers said he was assaulted by several people inside the Princeton, a popular bar on Dune Drive in Avalon, N.J., early on June 17. "I don't want to make a bigger deal of it than what it is," Evers said Tuesday. "Everything's good. " According to Avalon Police Chief William McCormick, Evers, sporting a puffy eye, flagged down an officer in the early morning hours.

Former Yankees pitcher A.J. Burnett, who had been trying to revive his career with the Pirates, is expected to miss two to three months while recovering from surgery for a facial fracture. The Pirates, who were trying to perk up their fortunes by acquiring Burnett, 35, in a three-player trade last month, are also in a pickle. They had intended to make him their No. 1 starter, but now have to scramble to find someone for their home opener April 5 against the Phillies. The righthander had surgery Friday in Pittsburgh for a broken orbital bone near his right eye, an injury he sustained when he fouled a ball off his face Wednesday during a bunting drill.

Police are investigating a killing outside a West Oak Lane nightclub earlier this morning. Around 1:15 a.m., police found a 30-year-old man shot in the shoulder outside Whispers Inn on the 7600 block of Ogontz Avenue, said police spokeswoman Officer Christine O'Brien. It appears the shooting developed from a fight started inside the lounge that spilled onto the sidewalk. The victim was transported to Albert Einstein Medical Center where he was pronounced dead at 1:29 a.m., O'Brien said.

"CELEBRITY CIRCUIT," a non-news division of CBS, reports that Adam Lambert and his Finnish "Big Brother" boyfriend Sauli Koskinen have made up after causing a gay bar brawl (that's a phrase you don't hear too often) in Helsinki. Both were detained by Finnish police early yesterday. There is no truth to the rumor that the fight started when Sauli mocked Adam's runner-up finish on "American Idol" when he won "Big Brother. " Adam tweeted the real reason for the incident: "Jetlag+Vodka=blackout," he wrote.