Halifax Alehouse bouncers Alexander Pishori Levy and Matthew Brenton Day are pleading not guilty to a pair of assault charges after claims they attacked a pub patron while on their shift last October.
The defense lawyer representing Levy, 37, and Day, 33, entered their pleas before Halifax provincial court judge Kelly Serbu on Friday, March 31. The intake hearing marked the fifth time the two bouncers have been summoned before the court since last October’s alleged assault. It also followed concerns from the judge and prosecution about a range of issues, from delays in the trial’s proceedings to the defense’s plans for legal representation.
Dispute over evidence delays Alehouse bouncer pleas
As Global News first reported, a patron alleges the two Alehouse security staffers assaulted him after escorting him out of the bar early in the morning on Oct. 10, 2022.
Complaints of potential trial delays first surfaced at the bouncers’ March 22, 2023 intake hearing—their fourth such hearing without entering a plea. Both Levy and Day first appeared at the Spring Garden Road courthouse on Nov. 29, 2022, but asked for their case to be postponed while they sought legal aid. The two were scheduled for three more plea hearings—on Jan. 23, Feb. 17 and March 22—with each pushed back to a later date. Neither has attended a court date in-person since the November hearing; instead, defense lawyer James Giacomantonio has spoken on their behalf. And on March 22, in asking for another court date, Giacomantonio argued that his clients hadn’t been given access to potentially key video evidence.
Speaking by phone before judge Serbu, Giacomantonio argued that his clients have yet to receive access to a cellphone video recording that the Crown possesses from the night of the alleged October assault. That video recording, the court heard, was taken by a witness at the scene. Crown attorney Nick Comeau counters that his office has made the video available to the defense as far back as March 8, provided the accused agree to sign an undertaking—essentially, a list of conditions they promise to uphold while their case is before the court. If the defense objects to the undertaking, Comeau told judge Serbu, the Crown would make the video available for viewing “as many times as my friend wishes with his clients,” but that the “integrity of the investigation” requires that access to the video comes with conditions.
Comeau questioned the defense’s request for an adjournment, given the brevity of the video in question: “The hurdle in the way is an approximately one-second video. I hope I’ve stated that as clearly as possible… We could set a date to litigate the issue of the undertaking, all the while setting a date for trial and securing that date to minimize the delay.”
That concern was echoed by judge Serbu, who told Giacomantonio, “I don’t see how a one-second video should stall you from entering pleas at this time.”
Giacomantonio responded that he hadn’t been properly briefed by the Crown on its evidence available for disclosure.
At the March 31 hearing, judge Serbu voiced separate concerns about the appropriateness of one lawyer representing both co-defendants. (A 1977 Hofstra Law Review article notes that although the practice is rare, it’s been a “constant source of concern” for courts because of the possibility of clients’ interests diverging.)
Giacomantonio assured Serbu that both of his clients “are fully aware,” and he doesn’t expect any issues to arise. He added that his “instructions are clear” to represent both Levy and Day.
Man claims he was put in a chokehold and stomped on, couldn’t walk for days
Halifax Regional Police told The Coast that officers arrived at the Alehouse shortly after 2:35am on Oct. 10, 2022, following a call about an “unwanted person” at 5287 Prince Street. When the HRP arrived, Alehouse staff were restraining a man on the sidewalk. That man, Alehouse staffers allege, had been damaging property inside the bar. But that story is decidedly different from what the man who was being restrained remembers. And while the charges against Levy and Day have not yet been tested in court, the allegations are the latest in a series of claims against the Alehouse and its security staff, who have been the subject of both criminal charges and civil lawsuits—and accused of being “overly eager to resort to violence.”
As CBC News first reported last month, a 21-year-old man claims he was ordering a beer at the Alehouse on Oct. 10 when a bouncer tapped his shoulder and told him to leave. He says he wasn’t given a reason why. The man—whose identity The Coast has reviewed, but is not disclosing due to the event’s sensitive nature—claims that once he was escorted outside onto the Prince Street sidewalk, the Alehouse’s bouncers taunted him, before one bouncer punched him on the side of the head. He claims that he was held in a chokehold, punched in the face and stomped on by several of the Alehouse’s bouncers. He further claims that he couldn’t walk for days after the incident; he says it left him with a concussion. The Coast reached out to the Alehouse’s ownership and management for a response, but did not receive a reply.
Other patron ‘attacked from behind’ and strangled, lawsuit alleges
October’s alleged incident is one of several The Coast is aware of involving Alehouse bouncers in recent months. Last August, footage surfaced of as many as four men—several wearing what appear to be bar staff shirts—pinning a man to the ground for close to two minutes outside of the Alehouse before turning him over to police. At one point, a man wearing a staff-emblazoned shirt employs what looks like a headlock.
The events of that video, The Coast can now confirm, are the subject of a lawsuit against the Alehouse. According to court records, Addisiane Freeland claims that he was sitting at one of the Alehouse’s outdoor tables with a group of his friends at around 1:10am on Aug. 14, 2022, when staff told him to leave. The lawsuit does not specify what prompted the demand for Freeland to leave, nor who, specifically, made the request. Freeland claims that upon asking if he could finish his drink first, he was “attacked from behind” and “wrestled to the ground,” where multiple bouncers restrained, strangled and punched him. He claims that despite complying with their requests, the bouncers accused him of resisting. (The Coast hasn’t been able to confirm if Levy or Day were working at the Alehouse that night, or if they were among the alleged group of security staff involved.)
Freeland’s lawsuit describes the incident as a result of “carelessness, negligence, and intentional actions of the bouncers.” It claims that Freeland suffered a fractured hyoid bone—which affects speech and swallowing—and sustained “severe bruising and lacerations” to his left elbow, both knees, lip and eyes, along with a concussion and trauma to his “entire face.” The lawsuit further claims that Freeland suffers from “psychological trauma,” sleep disruption, weight loss and “dietary restrictions” as a result of his injuries.
The Coast has reached out to both the Alehouse and Freeland for comment about the incident. We have yet to receive a reply.
Patron claims he suffered ‘cracked/broken rib’ after Alehouse incident last June
Numerous claims against the Alehouse share a common theme: Assaults involving multiple bouncers. Zach (not his real name) told The Coast in January that he still feels the occasional rib pain more than half a year after he says he was assaulted by the Brunswick Street pub’s security staff during a night out at the bar on June 25, 2022.
It was around 3:25am—minutes before closing time. Zach says he was over-served that night but wasn’t disturbing anyone. Three bouncers came to escort him out of the bar. He was “unharmed” while in view of the other patrons, he told The Coast, but once they reached the Alehouse’s back stairwell, there was a “gauntlet of strikes waiting” for him.
“I quickly tore my arms away to protect my face, so I didn’t get a good visual,” he claims, “but there had to be a bare minimum of three people striking me simultaneously.” (The Coast does not have any evidence that Levy or Day were among the alleged group of security staff involved.)
Zach claims he ended up with “two shiners,” skin torn off his bicep and a “cracked/broken rib” that he claims took nine weeks to heal. He says he opted not to press charges due to “circumstances surrounding my employment.” (For this reason, we’ve granted his request for anonymity.)
Now, he says, he’s reconsidering his reticence to press charges: “They cannot uphold their liquor license obligations and cannot be relied on to mind the well-being of their patrons.”
Zach’s claims against the Alehouse and its bouncers have not been tested in court—and to The Coast’s knowledge, no Alehouse bouncers have been arrested in the wake of the alleged June incident. We’ve reached out to the Alehouse for comment on several occasions by phone, email and in-person. We have yet to receive a reply.
Police investigation into Sawyer’s death continues
Nearly three months since Ryan Michael Sawyer was found unresponsive on the sidewalk outside of the Alehouse in the early morning hours of Dec. 24, 2022, the HRP has yet to announce any charges or updates in its investigation. The Nova Scotia Medical Examiner Service has ruled Sawyer’s death, which stemmed from a reported “disturbance involving several people” at Brunswick and Prince Streets, as a homicide. Police initially arrested one man, but released him without charges. A Dec. 24 HRP release said police were “not looking for any additional suspects.” The HRP has not disclosed any arrests since.
Police have not shared whether the Alehouse or any of its staff are under investigation in Sawyer’s death, but photos provided to The Coast from the night of the incident show a police officer in the upstairs window of the Brunswick Street bar. Sawyer himself was found on Prince Street, not far from the Alehouse’s side door.
Several social media reports—as well as a witness who spoke with CBC News—have linked the incident as having involved a bouncer at the Alehouse, but The Coast has not been able to substantiate those accounts at this time. The HRP has declined to comment further.
“With any investigation,” HRP spokesperson Cst. John MacLeod told The Coast in January, “we wouldn’t provide any information in relation to any of the individuals involved until we’re at a position where we’re laying charges, and those charges have been sworn before the courts.” The Coast has reached out to the Alehouse’s ownership and management for comment on what happened on the night of Dec. 23 and morning of Dec. 24. We have yet to receive a reply.
What’s next in court case?
Both Levy and Day will return to Halifax provincial court on May 3, 2023 for a pre-trial hearing. The trial itself—expected to last three days—will begin on April 30, 2024. In the interim, the bouncers are prohibited, per court order, from communicating with the 21-year-old alleged victim from October’s incident or venturing within 25 metres of any of his known addresses.
