A Manhattan salesman whose eye socket was fractured in a boozy brawl at the staid New York Athletic Club two years ago has filed a blow-by-blow account of the fisticuffs.
In new court papers, victim Andrew Haesler insists that he was not initially involved when punches started flying under the medieval-style chandeliers of the second-floor Tap Room.
Instead, he and a pal were just trying to break things up, Haesler insists in the latest filing in his suit against Wall Streeters Peter Doran, 29, of Glen Head, LI, and Colin Drowica, 31, of Manhattan.
Haesler interceded three times, including after his eye socket was cracked, he claims.
What did the 50-year-old get for his good Samaritan efforts? Punches and kicks to the head by Drowica and multiple additional punches — including the orbital bone-cracking blow — from Doran, the papers contend.
“Defendant Doran was involved in an initial attack on a bar patron, which Mr. Haesler and his friend attempted to defuse,” the papers say.
But when Haesler tried to pull the combatants apart, the brokers both took shots at him, Haesler, a Stuy Town resident, says in papers filed in Manhattan Supreme Court.
“Defendant Drowica punched me in the face, fracturing my right orbital bone,” Haesler says in an affidavit attached to the new filing. “I was removed from the area of the fight by friends,” he adds.
But that was just the start. As he was walking out, he saw the attackers pouncing on a pal of his, and tried to pull them off, he says.
“When he heard me approaching, [Doran] turned to face me and punched me in the temple,” he says.
“While on the ground, defendant Doran was repeatedly throwing punches up at me while Drowica kicked me in the head,” he says.
“Afterward, defendant Doran repeatedly threw punches up at Mr. Haesler before the police arrived to stop the attackers,” the papers say.
Both Doran and Drowica, a director at Knight Capital, have pleaded guilty to misdemeanor assault, but Doran is insisting he only hit another bar patron and never laid a hand on Haesler.
That’s because Doran was too drunk to remember, Haesler counters.
“The only rationale to explain how he could do so in a sworn statement is that he has no memory of the night due to his intoxication,” Haesler says in court papers.
“A preposterous story,” Doran replies in his own court document, which seeks that the suit be tossed.
Lawyers for Haesler, Doran and Drowica did not return calls seeking comment.