A former Staten Island firefighter testified yesterday that he has lost his short-term memory, is haunted by fears and lives like a virtual invalid with his parents since he was bashed on the head with a metal chair by a colleague during a booze-fueled firehouse New Year’s party.
Robert Walsh is suing the city and basher Michael Silvestri for $100 million in Manhattan federal court.
Walsh, 45, said his only memory of events leading up to the near-fatal 2003 attack was of him accusing Silvestri of stealing overtime and his attacker hurling an anti-gay epithet at him.
He said the two had been discussing Elvis Presley’s birth date – which was about a week away.
Walsh said the next thing he remembers was being driven to the hospital with head and back injuries that continue to cause him pain.
He said it wasn’t until 10 days later, when his sister showed him a newspaper, that he learned that the much smaller Silvestri had blindsided him.
The 6-foot-7, 350-pounder wiped his eyes after his lawyer, Jonathan Reiter, handed him photographs of himself unconscious in the hospital, his face swollen and bandaged.
Walsh said that soon after Silvestri transferred to the Tottenville firehouse, he began taunting him with gay slurs.
Walsh said he isn’t gay, but never challenged the jeers because “the more you answer it, the more credibility it has.”
Reached by phone yesterday, Silvestri – who served eight months in jail for the assault – insisted: “I am not a gay basher. I have plenty of gay friends – I’m the most liberal guy you’d ever meet.”