4 charged after attack on restaurant employees in Mount Greenwood
CHICAGO — Four 20-year-old men charged in connection with an alleged assault and brawl at a Mount Greenwood restaurant faced a judge on Tuesday.
The incident unfolded around 2 a.m. Sunday at Barraco’s Ristorante in the 3000 block of West 111th Street in the Mount Greenwood neighborhood.
According to police, Andrew Fedyk, 20, of La Grange Park, Harry Kenny, 20, of Glen Ellyn, Frank Paris, 20, of River Forest, and John Powers IV, 20, of Oak Park, were all charged with aggravated battery/public place, aggravated battery/great bodily harm and aggravated battery/victim 60+.
Fedyk faces an additional misdemeanor charge of use of a false identification card. Paris faces an additional felony charge of robbery. Powers IV faces an additional felony count of aggravated battery/strangling.
Prosecutors said there were four victims in the case, including an off-duty police officer and the restaurant’s owner, who remains hospitalized with serious injuries.
On Tuesday, a judge granted pretrial release for all four suspects.
Prosecutors said the suspects had been asked to leave the bar Sunday morning after allegedly acting drunk and urinating on the bathroom floor.
As the incident spilled outside, prosecutors said the men allegedly got into a fight with several victims.
Prosecutors said it was Paris who allegedly threw the punch to Barraco’s head, which caused him to fall on the pavement and suffer a serious head injury.
“I think the judge made some pretty interesting statements that there’s more to this story than they claimed,” Damon Cheronis, the attorney for Powers IV, said.
While prosecutors claimed the incident was a violent attack, and said the suspects “wreaked havoc instead of just leaving when the night should have been over,” defense attorneys painted a different picture.
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“We presented a video today that showed it was the bouncers that were the aggressors,” Cheronis said.
That video, which is less than 30 seconds long, was played only for the eyes of attorneys and the judge. After seeing it, the judge said it appeared to potentially contradict statements made by witnesses.
“With particular respect to my client, Mr. Paris, it shows that he’s sort of hunted down the street, he’s attacked, he’s punched in the face,” Mike Leonard, the attorney for Paris, said.
Paris, who was identified by investigators as the alleged aggressor, is the suspect who allegedly caused the serious injuries to Barraco.
While the judge said it appeared that the state met its burden to prove Paris did commit battery causing great bodily harm, she did not believe he or the others to be a danger to the public.
The judge added that she did not want to undermine the seriousness of the incident and called it an alcohol-fueled incident that did not need to happen.
“Too often when we’re here in this building, we’re not talking about the victims, and that’s the problem on multiple levels,” Alderman Matt O’Shea (19th Ward), who is a friend of Barraco, said.
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O’Shea said Barraco and his family have spent more than 40 years giving back to the community.
I also hope that my friend Nic Barraco continues to get medical treatment to help him come back from this. Because he is a man of character and a pillar of my community.
All four men are due back in court on July 1.
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