Attorney: Haley Reinhart's friend got concussion, cuts in Lamplighter Inn brawl
Editor's Note: The linked TMZ.com video includes profanity and violence.
More details are coming out about the July 8 brawl at Lamplighter Inn in Palatine in which singer Haley Reinhart was arrested.
During the fight, Reinhart's friend, Alan Chislof, 30, of Wheeling, was seen on a TMZ.com video being restrained by several men who Chislof's attorney said were Lamplighter bouncers.
Chislof suffered a concussion and had a cut above his left eye that required stitches, said his attorney, Mark A. Brown, a partner with Lane & Lane LLC in Chicago. Chislof still has broken blood vessels in his eyes and black and blue marks all over his face, and has been spitting up blood, Brown said. He was treated in the emergency room but not admitted to the hospital, Brown said.
Since the fight, Chislof, a 5-foot, 7-inch personal trainer and salesman at an Evanston gym, has been unable to work, Brown said.
"They took him down with a choke hold. One guy had his hand around (Chislof's) throat. When he thought he was going to pass out or maybe die, he fell to the ground. Then they started pummeling him. His face is mangled," Brown said.
The Lamplighter Inn management declined to comment Monday.
No one has been arrested except Reinhart. She was charged with battery after a member of the security staff said she struck him in the head with a fist.
Palatine police have seen the TMZ video and are still investigating, Cmdr. Craig Lesselyoung said Monday.
"I suspect there will be charges to follow," he said.
Police said the brawl started after Reinhart and her friends flipped over a table, but Chislof had a different account of what happened and there was no table involved, Brown said.
Chislof - a friend of Reinhart's from Wheeling High School - was at the downtown Palatine bar with five women, including his girlfriend and Reinhart. In the early morning of July 8, Brown said, Reinhart touched a rope that was between the tables and the dance floor, angering the bouncers.
"They grabbed her arm aggressively, and (Chislof) stepped in and said, 'Hey, this is a girl' ... and put up his hand like, whoa, whoa, whoa. Then that bouncer called the other bouncers over," Brown said.
The confrontation escalated and they were asked to leave the bar, police said.
The TMZ.com video, believed to be taken by a bar patron, shows security staff members swearing and screaming while restraining Chislof. One is seen telling Reinhart to "get (expletive) lost. You (expletive) hit me in the face" and then following her out of the bar.
Reinhart's attorney adamantly denies the singer struck anyone, saying Reinhart was the one assaulted.
Reinhart, 26, who grew up in Wheeling but now lives in Encino, California, was a top three finalist on "American Idol" in 2011.