By David Abel
The Boston Globe
BOSTON — He was socializing at the Polish American Club in Hyde Park when Paul Nemes overheard something that angered him and approached a man drinking at the bar, prosecutors said.
A heated conversation ensued Tuesday night between Nemes, a 28-year veteran of the Boston Fire Department, and Paul J. Crowley, 62, a contractor from Whitman, authorities said. The argument escalated into chest bumping and some sort of fisticuffs.
“The exact nature we’re not quite certain as yet,” said Amy Galatis, an assistant district attorney.
After patrons and bar personnel broke up the fight, Crowley walked outside and collapsed in the parking lot from a massive heart attack. It was not clear yesterday how much time had elapsed between the fight and Crowley’s collapse. Nemes, 58, of Norwood, helped perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation on Crowley before paramedics took him to Brigham and Women’s Hospital.
Police later arrested Nemes, who pleaded not guilty yesterday to assault and battery charges in West Roxbury District Court. Crowley remained in critical condition yesterday afternoon at the hospital.
Nemes’s lawyer, Neal Connolly, contended that the heart attack occurred well after the fight and was unrelated.
“There’s a time lapse and a duration,” Connolly said. “The episode was not connected to his illness.”
At Crowley’s home yesterday, a woman who identified herself as his daughter-in-law said she did not want to talk about the fight.
“We don’t know much right now,” she said. “All we know is that [Crowley’s] not OK.”
In court, Galatis said Nemes has no previous criminal record,
Nemes was ordered held on $1,000 cash bail, pending a pretrial hearing on Oct. 31.
Steve MacDonald, a spokesman for the Fire Department, said Nemes has an excellent record and works as an incident command technician. His job is to enter buildings that are on fire and assess their safety.
“He’s an outstanding firefighter who’s been around for a while and seen a lot of action,” MacDonald said.
He said Nemes will remain on staff.
“All we know is that he’ll continue working as a firefighter, and he’ll brief the department as the case proceeds through the court system,” MacDonald said.
It has been a hard week for the Fire Department.
Police charged Boston firefighter Vernon Tiger Allen, 43, with drunken driving, speeding, and negligence after a car crash seriously injured another driver Sunday in West Roxbury.
The arrests have coincided with a contract dispute between city officials and the Boston Firefighters Union over random drug and alcohol testing of firefighters.
The city wants testing, but the union has refused to agree without receiving a boost in pay or benefits. The controversy arose as a result of an autopsy last year that found one firefighter was drunk and another had cocaine in his system when they died in a West Roxbury fire.
© Copyright 2008 Globe Newspaper Company.