Red Sox Fan Stabbed By Yankees Fan In Bar Wins $4.3 Million Judgment
A Boston Red Sox fan who was stabbed in the neck and nearly killed by an enraged New York Yankees fan has won a $4.3 award against the bar that refused to cut off the man.
The incident happened in 2010 in a restaurant in New Haven, Connecticut. The Red Sox fan, Monte Freire, was watching a game at the U.S.S. Chowder Pot III when he was harassed by a Yankees fan.The fan was reportedly warning patrons that they were in “Yankees territory.”
Other patrons had warned the bartender that the Yankees fan was bothering patrons and trying to start a fight, buy they still served him alcohol, said Friere’s layer Timothy Pothin.
Instead the Yankees fan, John Mayor, assaulted Friere with a knife, stabbing him through the neck. The 45-year-old Freire suffered life-threatening injuries, including a stroke that left him with impaired speech and vision.
Mayor is now in prison serving a 10-year sentence.
On Thursday a jury in New Haven reached a verdict, awarding Red Sox fan Monte Freire $4.3 million.
“We’re grateful that the jury was very attentive. They understood our case and held the Chowder Pot responsible for its employees’ negligence,” Pothin said. “Perhaps this will provide a lesson to other bars and nightclubs in our community and their insurance carriers who continue to maintain untenable positions in cases of clear negligence.”
The restaurant plans to appeal, said their attorney, Jan Trendowski.
“They warned the bartender the guy was acting like a jerk,” Trendowski said. “How they make the jump from jerk to stabbing, that’s the real issue here. What is the sane response to the insane situation? If you don’t know why he stabbed him how can you possibly say that something contributed to it?”
The case of the Boston Red Sox fan stabbed by the Yankees fan is the latest in a string of baseball-related crimes. Bryan Stow, a San Francisco Giants fan, was assaulted by two angry Dodgers fans in Los Angeles on opening day in 2011. He was nearly killed, and has spent the two years in a rehab facility before finally going home this month.
