Jury acquits second bouncer of beating up bar customer

Jury acquits second bouncer of beating up bar customer

A 22-year-old bouncer at a popular downtown Ann Arbor nightclub was found innocent Monday of severely beating a customer last year.

Following about five hours of deliberation, a jury in Washtenaw County Circuit Court acquitted Edward Abbott, 2352 Twin Lake, Ypsilanti, on a charge of assault with intent to commit great bodily harm.

Abbott is the second bouncer at the Secpnd Chance, 516 E. Liberty Ave., to be acquitted of having assaulted a patron in the last two months.

Assistant prosecutor Robert Cooper claimed Abbott beat Roger Neirynck, 24, a former community service officer with the Farmington Hills police department who now lives in Florida, during a ruckus at the Second Chance last March 30.

Neirynck testified that he did nothing to provoke the assault, which left him with a shattered eye socket, broken septum in his nose and dizzy spells. He said Abbott attacked him when he tried to break up a fight at the bar.

But Abbott claimed self defense. He said Neirynck provoked the fight by rushing him and punching him several times during a scuffle between another bouncer and patron.

Cooper told the jury the bar employees were engaged in a cover-up.

Ann Arbor lawyer Carl Shaner, representing Abbott, denied a cover-up and said Neirnyck was not telling the truth. Shaner has also accused Ann Arbor police of making an incomplete investigation of the incident after it was reported.