Joxer Daly’s Irish pub lost a prominent customer this morning.
There was a flash of sweet irony in an 8-minute court hearing to dispose of the case against City Councilman Mehaul O’Leary’s adversary.
The final legal remedy, a relative fizzle, did not last nearly as long as last summer’s closing-time bar brawl, which precipitated fireworks that still are tinged in mystery.
With nationally celebrated attorney the dapper Bruce Margolin at the helm, Councilman O’Leary’s rival for physical dominance brought the case to a conclusion.
Robert Anthony Singerman pleaded no-contest — the equivalent of a guilty plea — to a reduced misdemeanor charge of simple battery, and he was placed on two years’ summary probation. He faces a 6-month prison stay if found in violation of conditions during that period.
Meanwhile, Judge Kathryn Solorzano ordered Mr. Singerman not to venture within 100 yards of Joxer Daly’s or Mr. O’Leary.
It was indicated in court that Mr. O’Leary concurred with the outcome.
That is a comparatively quiet denouement to a Saturday night in August flareup at Joxer Daly’s that had politicians, city fathers, mothers and siblings agog in Culver City for a few weeks.
Mr. O’Leary never has made a public statement on the matter.
Specific outlines of the case have been left dangling.
Did the fairly well-known patron, Mr. Singerman, 28 years old, start the dustup with Councilman O’Leary, who has owned Joxer Daly’s for nearly a decade?
Or did Mr. O’Leary himself spark the fisticuffs that sent him to the hospital for almost a week with broken bones in his face?
Since it has been acknowledged that both men had been tippling, which may have slightly marred their recollection of events, the truth evidently is doomed to repose in limbo.
