Zee Media Bureau
Washington: A Los Angeles man, who suffered severe brain damage and a caved-in skull after a brutal thrashing at a California bar, has been awarded $63mn by US jury.
The victim named Antonio Lopez Chaj, is a 43 year old house painter, who was brutally bashed by a bartender and a security guard when he tried to intervene in a scuffle that involved his relatives.
The horrendous beating at bar has left the man with a skull caved in permanently, which looks like a “pie with 25 per cent cut out of it” in words of his lawyer Federico Sayre.
Mr Chaj has suffered severe brain damages that have left him unable to speak, or walk without support.
Mr Chaj was beaten with a baton, kicked in the head eight times and had his skull smashed against pavement four times by an unlicensed, untrained security guard, said his lawyers.
The incident happened on April 20, 2010 at Barra Latina, a bar in California, where Mr Chaj was accompanied with his brother and two nephews.
"It was truly a horrendous and brutal beating by a guy who shouldn`t have been working at all," said Mr Sayre, who represented Mr Chaj along with Fernando Chavez, the son of famed civil rights leader Cesar Chavez.
The security guard, Emerson Quintanilla, and the bartender-manager who sparked the attack have disappeared without a trace, he added.
"I think the man went crazy, lost his mind," he said of Mr Quintanilla. "It was a species of road rage."
One of the relatives got into a dispute with the bartender-manager who came after him with brass knuckles, Mr Sayre said while Mr Quintanilla, who was working for DGSP Security and Patrol Services, began kicking and beating members of the group.
Mr Chaj tried to intervene and said, "Stop beating my nephews." At that point, Mr Sayre said, the guard beat him into unconsciousness. Part of his skull was gone when he reached the hospital.
"They saved his life but he has significant brain damage," Mr Sayre said. "He can`t speak and he requires 24-hour nursing care." He said his client faced more surgery.
With Agency Inputs
