Lions' top pick settles Boston bar assault charge
BOSTON—Two former Boston College football players have settled charges they assaulted a software engineer in a popular sports bar after he refused to give up his space.
Gosder Cherilus, a 2008 first-round draft pick of the Detroit Lions, and ex-teammate DeJuan Tribble, a sixth-round pick for San Diego, were sentenced to a year of probation for the assault on Sean Maney, 29, of Watertown, who suffered a broken neck and other injuries.
Cherilus also was ordered to pay $52,000 for Maney's medical expenses during a hearing Wednesday in Boston Municipal Court.
Authorities say the fight last July 1 started after Massachusetts State Police trooper Joseph Boike, part-owner of the Greatest Bar, asked Maney and his friends to make room for a group of BC players who were celebrating Cherilus' birthday.
Boike is scheduled to go to trial Aug. 4. He is accused of using a broken bottle in the assault against Maney and with assault and battery on the girlfriend of Maney's brother, Christy Osbourne. He was put on paid administrative leave by the state police after the incident.
Cherilus and Tribble have said they were acting as peacemakers.
Cherilus, an offensive lineman, and Tribble, a defensive back, were not disciplined by BC football coach Jeff Jagodzinski.
Philip A. Tracy Jr., attorney for Cherilus and Tribble, and Boike's lawyer, Robert L. Allen Jr., did not immediately return calls for comment. Tracey told The Boston Globe Thursday that the players were glad this part of the case was behind them.
Maney has also filed a civil suit against the players, Boike and the bar.
No phone listing for Maney could immediately be found.
