'Coldcocked' By Woman in Bar-Seat Spat, Fla. Lawyer Mulls Lawsuit
A Florida lawyer who tried to save his bar seat by leaving a Budweiser on the counter at the Chick-A-Boom Room this week got more than he bargained for.
When he returned from the restroom early Tuesday, a woman in business attire had her purse on the chair and was rummaging through it, says attorney Louis Brunoforte of Dunedin. The two exchanged words, the 46-year-old former high-school boxer tells the St. Petersburg Times, and then—boom!—she hit him right in the mouth.
“She threw a punch like a man would throw a punch,” recounts Brunoforte, who says he was “coldcocked” by the punch. “I didn’t fall, but my head jolted back. She completely caught me off guard. I didn’t expect it.”
Since returning the 5-foot-8, 180-pound woman’s punch wasn’t an option, the 6-foot, 240-pound attorney says, he had to pursue a legal remedy. The bartender called police and Rachel Adams, 45, of Indiana was subsequently pulled over in the vicinity and charged with driving under the influence and misdemeanor simple battery.
Adams, who did not respond to a newspaper request for comment, was released later Tuesday on $650 bail.
After having back surgery in March, Brunoforte says, he uses a cane and a brace and hence is considering a lawsuit over the incident.
In a May 22 telephone interview with the ABA Journal, he emphasizes that he didn’t intend to argue over the chair, but initially assumed that the woman intended to stand there only for a few moments while she looked through her purse.
“I just figured she was going to be in the chair temporarily, that’s why I stood by,” Brunoforte tells the ABA Journal. But then, as the woman apparently took umbrage at his presence and asked him if he had a problem, one comment led to another. When she asked him to find another chair, he told her: “Well, I kind of like this chair.” Then the two traded insults and she landed her punch, he says.
Updated on May 22 to include and accord with Brunoforte’s comments to ABA Journal.
