After nightclub melee, judge doubles suspect’s bail

February 25, 2008 02:53 PM Email| Comments (0)| Text size – +

By John R. Ellement and Andrew Ryan, Globe Staff

After hearing a description of a gang melee at a Boston nightclub that had bullets and champagne bottles flying, a judge today didn’t just grant a prosecutor’s request for bail. He doubled it.

Also, late today officials announced that patrons of the Arias nightclub on Tremont street whose belongings were locked inside the club can pick them up on Tuesday. They must come by between noon and 6 p.m., according to officials from the city and the club. Anyone who cannot make it then should telephone the club to make other arrangements, said George Regan, spokesman for the club's owners.

In Boston Municipal Court, Judge Michael Coyne ordered that Damion Jamaal-Anthony Haley be held on $1 million cash bail after he pleaded not guilty to assault and battery on a police officer and other charges. Haley was arrested after two people were shot early Sunday at Aria, a dimly lit hip-hop nightclub on Tremont Street in Boston. Officers were on scene before the shooting in clearly marked Boston Police jackets because they had been tipped days earlier that gang members were planning to show up looking for trouble, prosecutors and police said.

At 1:45 a.m., a verbal argument turned violent. Three or four shots rang out and two people were struck in the arm. Police said they saw Haley standing on a platform holding a 9mm Lugar.

Susan Terrey, an assistant Suffolk district attorney, told the judge that Haley was cavalier, even after he had been arrested and read his Miranda rights.

“I had a beef,” Haley told police, according to Terrey. “They threw a drink so I had to come out with it.”

Defense attorney Josh Hanye said in court that his client had been unfairly labeled a gang member despite having no criminal convictions to support such an allegation. Given the chaos inside the bar at the time of the shooting, it would not have been possible to identify Haley as the gunman, Hanye said.

About 15 to 20 friends and relatives of Haley declined to comment after the hearing. Some had a brief argument with reporters covering the arraignment. One knocked a microphone out of a television reporter’s hands.

Haley was also held on six outstanding warrants, including one from Quincy District Court dating to December 2005.

Jack Gateman, the owner of Aria, has agreed to voluntarily surrender the club’s liquor and entertainment licenses while police investigate the shooting, officials said this afternoon at a press conference at City Hall. Mayor Thomas M. Menino said that the gang intelligence that had officers at the club before the shooting helped “abort a very serious situation.”

The city is working with the nightclub to determine under what circumstances Aria might reopen. Patricia Malone, director of the office of consumer affairs and licensing, said police did not alert the owners of the club that they had received information about possible violence that night. In the past, police have warned other clubs about trouble, and it was not immediately clear why officers did not communicate with the nightclub.

George Regan, a spokesman for Aria, said the nightclub turned over its license to fully cooperative with authorities and facilitate a thorough investigation. “The club prides itself on its security,” Regan said. “We go beyond the beyond. But in this day and age, even the pope or the president can get shot.”

Regan praised the “quick thinking” of Boston police. “We could have had another station nightclub disaster here,” he said, referring to the Rhode Island club where 100 people died in a fire. “We could have had an unmitigated national disaster.”