Melee mars wedding reception
Published in the Asbury Park Press 10/14/03
By TOM TRONCONESTAFF WRITER
BELMAR -- A donnybrook erupted at a wedding reception Sunday night when a
guest became enraged because he thought his girlfriend was manhandled during the
traditional garter belt ritual, police said yesterday.
Four members of a Bergen County family were charged in the aftermath of the
melee, which left four people hospitalized with cuts and bruises and three
officers with minor injuries, police said.
Anthony Juliano, 57, Joseph Haas, 38, Toni Powers, 32, and Stephen Ruzzano,
59, all of Lyndhurst, were charged in connection with the brawl, which occurred
around 9:30 p.m. Sunday at The Barclay banquet hall on Fifth Avenue, Police
Chief Jack Hill said.
All four were charged with disorderly conduct. Juliano also faces more
serious charges of aggravated assault on a police officer and resisting arrest.
"A guest improperly put the garter on the girl who caught the bouquet," Hill
said. "It wasn't acceptable to her boyfriend and a melee ensued."
About 40 people became involved in the brawl and police from eight towns were
called in to restore order, Hill said.
"It was literally a donnybrook," he said.
Reached at his home yesterday, Haas was livid at police for how they handled
the fracas. He said he is angry that the man who started the fight was not
charged and that police escalated the situation instead of calming it.
"My uncle (Ruzzano) gets the garter and he puts it right up to her knee like
a gentleman," Haas said. "Twenty minutes later, somebody walked up to my uncle
and took a swing at him."
During the melee, his teen daughter was thrown to the ground and when police
arrived he demanded the man that pushed the girl down be charged. When he did,
he said, he was arrested.
"I got loud," he said. "That's assault on my kid."
He also said police threw Juliano's wife to the ground as they rushed past
her to get to the fighters, something that infuriated Juliano.
"He went through the cops to get to his wife to make sure she was OK, and
they grabbed him and threw him on a table, saying he hit one of the cops," Haas
said. "The charges are absolute B.S. . . . He never threw a punch, made a fist
or did nothing."
A bartender working the wedding, Kevin Murday, 27, of Belmar said a table was
crushed, but the hall did not sustain any serious damage. He said the fight had
ceased, but flared up again when Belmar police arrived.
"It was a disaster," Murday said. "The bride and groom were pretty shocked.
They just kind of sat there and stared."
Tom Troncone: (732) 643-4050 or [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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