"Beth Treseler wipes away a tear while discussing the Sunday morning altercation at Lucy’s Saloon"
Posted on 10/21/2003 4:22:09 PM PDT by Yeti
Patrons at Lucy's Saloon watched in amazement around 1 a.m. Sunday when the man they say started a bar-clearing brawl began barking orders at police officers who arrived to quell it — and the officers responded.
The man turned out to be St. Paul police Sgt. Jon Loretz, the son of Police Chief William Finney. On Monday, the department referred an investigation into the fight to the state's Bureau of Criminal Apprehension to avoid a conflict of interest, Finney said. The chief pledged his department's full cooperation with the agency's probe.
The 34-year-old Loretz was at the 601 N. Western Ave. tavern with a female companion. He reportedly had had a few drinks when the fight broke out at the bar, which attracts a mostly lesbian clientele. Witnesses, including bar manager LaTonya Noble, say Loretz screamed slurs against homosexuals and was involved in several scuffles. One woman was hit over the head with a beer bottle before Loretz left through a back entrance. At least two women were taken to the hospital to be treated for injuries. Noble called for police help when the fights broke out.
Noble said Loretz directed a number of slurs at her. "I felt I was bashed.
"They let him walk away," said Noble, who expected the responding police officers to at least question Loretz. "I knew it was somebody important because they started taking orders from him."
Police said Loretz wasn't questioned until several hours later and was not given a sobriety test.
The BCA will take the lead in the probe and Finney will "completely recuse" himself, said Assistant Superintendent Tim O'Malley. The fact that Finney's wife, Linda, is a BCA agent will not have any impact on the investigation, O'Malley added. Neither Linda Finney nor her staff will be involved in the investigation, O'Malley said.
While the chief is Loretz's father, Linda Finney is not Loretz's mother. Police would not discuss the father-son relationship any further.
Loretz could not be reached for comment.
Disciplinary action, if any, will not be taken against Loretz until the BCA has finished its investigation. The department did not release his public personnel history Monday, but officials said he has been with the department eight years. Past assignments include a stint as a sex-crimes investigator. He is overseeing aspects of the police department's move into a new headquarters building, which is expected to take several months.
Finney has spoken with Loretz "as a father would," he said Monday. Finney would not divulge what his son might have said about the incident.
O'Malley said there is no time line for the BCA investigation. Detectives will probably look at accusations of assault and possibly whether Loretz carried a handgun into a bar where a gun-ban sign is posted on the front door. Nobles said she saw him show a handgun in a leg holster during the fight.
Even when an officer is off duty, he or she often carries a weapon, Finney said. The department discourages officers from carrying their weapons when drinking, he said.
THE INCIDENT
Saturday night was a typical night at Lucy's for the most part. The Frogtown tavern opens up its spacious second-story dance floor and bars on the weekend, and a mostly female crowd of about 100 had gathered to listen to guest disc jockey Lady L. from KMOJ-FM 89.9. The crowd typically is nearly all lesbian, though a few heterosexual customers attended Saturday to listen to the DJ, said bar patron Beth Treseler of Minneapolis.
The female companion with Loretz reportedly was dancing with several other women, and according to bouncer Tyrie Stanley, the incident started when a woman and Loretz's companion got into an argument. Loretz jumped in, Stanley said, and he saw a couple of chairs being tossed around.
Lady L., whose real name is Lynzada Hill, was playing the Jay-Z remix of Panjabi Mc's "Beware of the Boys" when she noticed a large man getting into a fight with several women on the dance floor below her booth. She turned off the song and turned up the lights.
"This guy, this big guy — he was actually swinging on women," Hill said Monday.
He was choking one woman when bar security stopped him, she said. Then he began to verbally attack Noble, who was trying to kick Loretz out of the bar. Hill said he yelled, "You want to act like a man, I'll treat you like a man."
Hill then said she saw Loretz smash a beer bottle over the head of Treseler. Treseler was immediately knocked out.
"He's big and tall. I'm only 5 (foot) 2," Treseler said Monday. Loretz stands 6-foot-5.
As Noble tried to get him out of the bar, Loretz kept saying that he was a police officer and that he could have the bar closed down, Noble said.
At one point, as Loretz made his way onto the street, a woman he was choking sprayed him with a chemical irritant, to which Loretz responded: "I eat that s - - - for breakfast," Noble said.
Then, as police officers arrived, Loretz told them he had things under control, Noble and others said. Hill said the officers were leaving when Noble began to object and called KSTP-TV, Channel 5.
On Monday, Treseler had five stitches in her head, a welt the "size of a softball" and a black eye.
Finney said he opted to turn the probe over to the BCA because "I want there to be no question that my role as a father in any way influenced this investigation."
Noble wants a full investigation into the brawl and has been reassured by other officers who have stopped by her business the past two days that there will be one.
"They weren't even going to do a report" Sunday morning, Noble recalled. "They were all about to leave." When Noble was contacted Monday by an investigator, the detective asked a few questions about whether a customer had a knife — something Noble told him was not true. But the detective did not ask about Loretz until she mentioned him, Noble said.
Much of the police work on Monday probably centered on the transfer of information, such as reports and statements, said Kevin Smith, spokesman for the state's Department of Public Safety.
St. Paul police have gone to the bar 32 times this year, according to St. Paul police spokesman Paul Schnell. Most calls have been for regular bar problems, and many from the bar staff themselves, to deal with drunken patrons and help break up fights. Many of the times the officers just stopped by, he said.
"Beth Treseler wipes away a tear while discussing the Sunday morning altercation at Lucy’s Saloon"
No idea. It said he was there with his girlfriend.
Wierd.
Actually, I wasn't talking about the cop stereotypes. But I see what you mean.
...He's big and tall. I'm only 5 (foot) 2
I thought that first line, "What no hate crime?!?!" was cute, but the "He was big and tall. I'm just a wittle girly-poo," was hilarious! I'm sure that's JUST EXACTLY the kind of thing she said to him that night.
Do you remember the time I told you about at the store? The chest-high flanel-clad woman doing a stare-down on me? That's what I tought about with this article.
I think she might have been saying things to him, a big drunk guy, that pushed him beyond his tolerance. "If you want to act like a man, then I'll treat you like a man!" LOL!
I love it. Not that I'm glad about the violence, but the situation as a whole makes good theater.
I wonder where the keg was, relative to the fight?
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