BC players probed for alleged role in bar scuffle

A customer who balked at making way for several Boston College football players in a sports bar near North Station lay in a hospital bed yesterday, after suffering spinal injuries as a result of an altercation with a BC star and an off-duty Massachusetts State Police sergeant who is a part-owner of the establishment, according to police and participants in the fight.

BC football cocaptain Gosder Cherilus, a 6-foot-7-inch, 318-pound former standout at Somerville High School, and State Police Sergeant Joseph Boike were cited in a Boston police report as suspects in the case, Boike said. A Boston police spokesman said the suspects, whom he declined to identify because the case remains under investigation, will be summoned to court to face possible charges stemming from the incident early Sunday morning at The Greatest Bar.

"It sounds like these people were out of control," said Joseph Doyle, a lawyer for Sean Maney, a 28-year-old software engineer from Watertown.

Maney underwent emergency surgery Wednesday at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center for spinal injuries. He also suffered a concussion and possible knee fracture, among other injuries, Doyle said.

Boike, 52, a 25-year State Police veteran, said Maney caused the fracas by sucker-punching him, prompting Cherilus to come to Boike's aid.

"I can't reiterate enough that this kid did nothing wrong," Boike said of Cherilus.

Cherilus, 23, a fifth-year senior at BC and a National Football League prospect, said he did nothing more than act as a peacemaker.

"The lesson I learned is not to try to break up anymore fights," he said in a phone interview.

By all accounts, the incident began when Boike asked Maney and several companions, including Maney's brother, Brian, 23, to move from a section of a bar on the top floor of the multilevel establishment to accommodate Cherilus and his BC teammates, one of whom the Maneys identified as DeJuan Tribble, another senior cocaptain. Witnesses also seem to agree that Brian's girlfriend told Boike he was rude and that Boike said he had the right to make the request as a part-owner of the bar.

What happened next is disputed.

Doyle said Boike grabbed the woman by the arm, pulled her off a barstool, and pushed the chair toward her. Boike said the woman kicked the chair at him, prompting him to scream an obscenity at her. Both sides agree that Sean Maney then approached Boike. Both of them are about 5-foot-10-inches and 180 pounds. Accounts of the subsequent events differ.

According to Boike, Maney sucker-punched him, causing Cherilus to grab Maney in "a bear hug."

"There was a lot of pushing and shoving, and everybody went down," Boike said. "It was kind of a domino effect."

Doyle denied Maney struck Boike. Rather, he said, Maney "was grabbed from behind in a stranglehold by the biggest of the football players, lifted off the ground, and carried the length of the bar."

Cherilus, who had turned 23 three days earlier and was celebrating his birthday, said Maney was falling backward toward him when he picked him up in one arm.

"I said, 'Hey, bro, let's go,' " Cherilus said. "He wanted to go back and fight, but I told him: 'You don't want to do that. You're outnumbered.' "

While Cherilus was carrying Maney, Doyle said, Tribble punched Maney.

Tribble said in an phone interview that he did not hit anyone.

"Whoever said that is definitely in the wrong," he said. "There were a lot of us in the bar, and people know we're BC football players, so we're going to get the blame, but none of our guys hit anybody."

When Cherilus and Maney reached the end of the bar, Doyle said, they crashed onto a table and became separated. At that point, the lawyer said, "The fellow who identified himself as the owner hit [Maney] in the head with a bottle."

Boike denied every element of Doyle's account. He said he planned to seek criminal charges against Maney today.

Cherilus said he did nothing more than carry Maney to the stairs and persuade him to leave.

"As God is my witness, he shook my hand and thanked me and went down the stairs," Cherilus said. "All the rest of this stuff is news to me."

The incident is the latest in a series of problems at The Greatest Bar, according to Dan Pokaski, chairman of the Boston Licensing Board.

"They have been on our radar screen for a while because of allegations of overaggressive bouncers," Pokaski said.

The bar's license was suspended for two weeks last year when an employee assaulted a patron. In 2005, the city twice suspended the bar's license -- once for four days, the other time for three days -- for employees assaulting customers. Bob Hohler can be reached at hohler@globe.com.