Gwar Fan Claims He Was Beaten At Band’s Restaurant. Band Replies He started The Fight
Representatives of the restaurant, an offshoot of the Richmond-based metal band GWAR, challenged the man’s account, saying he attacked the restaurant’s employees after he was kicked out for picking fights.
“I got him to leave — nothing physical — just told him he was cut off and asked him to leave,” said Michael Derks, who performs in GWAR as Balsac the Jaws of Death and is a managing partner at the restaurant.
“He apparently waited outside, and when we were closed and the cook left with our doorman, he jumped out of his truck with a knife about a block away, so they fought back and, I guess, beat him up.”
The man, Jeffrey Brown, a GWAR fan who was in town for a concert, offers a starkly different account in the lawsuit, filed in Richmond Circuit Court this month. The suit claims that an employee, identified in the suit as Spyder Blaze, “became agitated for no apparent reason and threatened to [harm] the plaintiff.”
Brown says he then left on his own accord but that Blaze and a doorman, Kristopher Clarke, followed him into the parking lot and violently attacked him.
The suit alleges that “at one point during this violent attack the Plaintiff, just before the Plaintiff was rendered unconscious, exclaimed ‘I’m hurt, I can’t take anymore, you’re killing me’ to which Defendant Blaze laughed and Defendant Clarke said ‘No, you can take more’ and continued violently punching a defenseless plaintiff.”
Brown says that as a result of the attack, he suffered brain damage and had to close a restaurant he operated in Virginia Beach.
“My nose was broken in four places, my cheekbone was broken, my eye socket was broken, my head was cracked open,” he said. “They broke my tooth all the way down to the root. The level of damage is insane.”
The suit alleges Brown called the restaurant for help and Derks mocked him. Derks counters that Brown did indeed call, but only to continue threatening him and asking to be let back in. “There were no pleas for help,” he said.
The Richmond Police Department said officers responded to a report of an assault at 3:08 a.m. on May 10, 2016.
“When police arrived, the victim stated he went to an establishment that evening when he got into an altercation,” said police spokeswoman Chelsea Rarrick. “The victim suffered non-life-threatening injuries and was transported to a local hospital.”
No charges were filed. Rarrick did not say why and did not immediately respond to follow-up questions.
The restaurant has not yet been served with the lawsuit and has not yet filed any response in court. No hearings have been set.
