NORWICH – More details about a Saturday night fight came out in Norwich City Court Thursday, as the two men arrested in the melee appeared for a hearing.
Police charged 24-year-old Roberto Jose Otero of Norwich with three counts of first degree assault, one count of second degree assault, third degree criminal possession of a weapon and tampering with physical evidence, all felonies. In court Thursday, Otero pleaded innocent to the charges.
Investigators said Otero was wielding a three-inch collapsible blade during the Saturday night fight, injuring four other victims and accidentally cutting the arm of his friend during the altercation.
His friend, 33-year-old Bernie J. Infante of McDonough, was charged with second degree criminal nuisance, a misdemeanor. He appeared in Norwich City Court yesterday before Judge James Cushman and pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of disorderly conduct, a violation, in a plea agreement with the district attorney’s office.
When asked if he had any comments to make before sentencing, Infante said, “I just want to be allowed to testify on my friend’s behalf. What happened to us was self-defense and it was racially motivated.”
Infante was released on a one-year conditional discharge and with time already served. He has been held at the Chenango County Correctional Facility since his arrest Feb. 20 on $500 bail.
The incident began at about 10:30 p.m. Saturday when police were called to a disturbance on North Broad Street in front of the Broad Street Tavern in downtown Norwich after a fight broke out among a group of patrons on the sidewalk.
Norwich Police Chief Joseph Angelino said the first officer to arrive at the scene found one of the victims laying on the pavement screaming and grasping his neck as blood gushed from between his hands. The officer immediately rushed the man to Chenango Memorial Hospital.
A moment later, a second city officer arrived and was directed by eyewitnesses to where the Otero and Infante had fled from the scene.
Officers arrested both men at gunpoint along Mechanic Street minutes after the incident took place. Both were taken into custody “without incident,” said Angelino. He said Otero was charged with tampering with evidence because he attempted to dispose of the knife right before he was arrested.
Police said the man who suffered stab wounds to his neck was later transported to Upstate Medical Center in Syracuse for further treatment. A second victim suffered an 8-inch laceration across his face and a third suffered deep cuts to his forearm that police said severed some arteries. A fourth victim was treated at CMH for unknown non-life threatening lacerations and stab wounds, according to police. Both Infante and Otero were also taken to the hospital and treated for injuries, including a knife cut across Infante’s arm.
One of those alleged victims, Norman Wilbur, appeared in court Thursday with a black eye and an 8-inch laceration from his ear to his chin. He testified that Otero started the fight by striking him in the head.
Wilbur said the two suspects were asked to leave the tavern because Infante had been previously barred from the establishment. “Another bartender, Rob, asked them to leave. As they did, they gave some hand gestures as they left,” he told the court.
Infante later told the court that Otero was unaware he had been barred from the drinking establishment two years earlier.
Wilbur said he and others watched through a window from inside the bar as Otero and Infante began talking to a female bartender having a cigarette outside, Erin McNeil. Wilbur said it appeared that heated words were being exchanged between the two defendants and McNeil, so he went outside to see what was going on.
“I stepped between them and told Erin to go inside,” he told the court. Wilbur said about five or six other people were already outside smoking and more came out of the bar in the moments before the fight.
Assistant District Attorney Michael Ferrarese asked if he heard any racial remarks. Wilbur responded no, but said, ‘there was a lot of yelling and screaming going on.”
Wilbur testified that while he was talking to McNeil, Otero struck him “over the shoulder” then slashed at him with a knife.
“I got punched. I saw a knife in his hand, it cut me,” he said. After being struck, Wilbur said a number of the people in the crowd jumped on Otero. “He just got tackled by several people,” he said.
Wilbur also testified that he never knew the defendants before the incident and had no personal relationship with the other victims in the case. “I know who some of them are, but I don’t really know them personally. We didn’t go to the bar together or anything,” he said.
Public Defender Kayphet Mavady asked the court to call Infante to the stand to testify that the incident was an act of self defense, but that drew objection from District Attorney Joseph McBride.
“We are not here today to have a trial, judge,” McBride said.
Cushman denied the defense’s move to call Infante and then said he believed there was sufficient evidence for investigators to believe Otero committed a felony.
“We are not here today, Mr. Otero, to decide if you are guilty or innocent of any crime. You walk out of this courtroom as you came into it, innocent until proven guilty,” Cushman said.
Otero’s case will be presented to a Chenango County grand jury March 10. He was remanded to the Chenango County Correctional Facility on $50,000 cash bail.