Man Beaten in Former Hells Angels Hangout : Jury Awards $592,000 in Damages to Victim in Reseda Bar Fight

Who’s a jury to believe? A convicted felon and snitch who was drunk when he was beaten up in a bar? Or a biker called Indian Dave and the owner of the bar, a hangout for the Hells Angels?

A Van Nuys Superior Court jury believed the intoxicated felon, a Canoga Park man. In a verdict filed Monday, jurors unanimously found that Chuck Smith, 61, deserved $592,000 for injuries he received in a fight last June at the Canby Sweet bar, in the 7200 block of Canby Avenue in Reseda.

Smith suffered a ruptured spleen, punctured lung and broken ribs in the fight. He was hospitalized for 30 days.

Smith’s attorney, Bruce M. Bunch, argued that the bar’s owner should have protected his client. He said the only security in the bar, then a Hells Angels hangout, was a female bartender.

Bunch said jurors felt that “We don’t need bars like this that cater to the Hells Angels and they ought to be put out of business.”

But an attorney for the bar, John Schroeder, said Bunch had “tried the case on the basis of the Hells Angels” and not on the facts. He said members of the Hells Angels used to stop at the bar but that owner Beverly Rios “kicked them out about eight months ago.”

Schroeder called the award outrageous, especially because the plaintiff is “an admitted felon and alcoholic.” Smith was convicted of arson for hire last year, but escaped a prison term by helping prosecutors convict the person who hired him.

Bunch said his client is a convict and has admitted that Smith was drunk when he went into the bar. Smith’s blood alcohol was more than 0.2% when he was admitted to the hospital two hours later, Bunch said.

But the two sides differ on what happened inside the bar.

Schroeder claimed that Smith threw the first punch at Sterling Knuznitsky, a biker known as Indian Dave. Four witnesses, including the owner, agreed. Schroeder said Knuznitsky, in turn, hit Smith once.

Smith testified that he doesn’t remember who threw the first punch but that he was kicked and struck several times in the bar.

Schroeder said Smith at first thought he might have been beaten up because of his role as a snitch in the arson case. But Smith discovered later that one of the two women with whom he entered the bar was the girlfriend of one of the bikers, Schroeder said.

“It all boiled down to which side the jury believed,” he said. “And they believed us.”