Insults, injuries: Mass. man beaten at N.Y. stadium
By Jessica Heslam
Boston Herald Media Reporter
Tuesday, October 31, 2006 - Updated: 04:29 AM EST
While his helpless, pregnant wife watched in horror, a Woburn man says, he was viciously beaten outside the Buffalo Bills’ football stadium last week by a liquored-up mob of New York fans embittered after the Pats crushed their team.
“I thought they were going to kill him,” a pregnant Diane Donaghey said yesterday of the booze-fueled ruffians who allegedly attacked her husband, Barry, 30.
The couple filed a police report and have retained a lawyer. They say they never saw a security guard during their ordeal.Police in Orchard Park, N.Y., where the stadium is located, did not respond to calls seeking comment.
A spokesman for the Bills organization said he wasn’t aware of the incident but would look into it today.
The pair went to Niagara Falls and the Oct. 22 Patriots game at Ralph Wilson Stadium to celebrate their second wedding anniversary.
After the game, in which the Pats mauled the Bills 28-6, the couple grilled food in the parking lot while waiting for it to clear out. About 5 p.m., Barry Donaghey - who was wearing a Red Sox cap and Pats jacket - went to use a nearby porta-potty.
While Donaghey was inside, he said, Bills fans began hurling anti-Patriots insults and pelting the portable restroom with rocks and other objects. “I thought if I kept my head down, I would be fine,” recalled the software salesman.
Donaghey said four men were waiting outside, and one of them punched him in the face, turned to the others and yelled “Let’s get him!” The cockeyed crowd quickly grew to about 20 people, he said.
He said the mob punched, kicked and attacked him as he made his way back toward his car. One man struck him with a portable chair, he said. “I was just fighting for my life. I managed to stay on my feet. I thought, if I went down, they would kill me,” he said.
Diane Donaghey, 31, who is four months pregnant with their first child, screamed for help and begged the cowardly mob to stop. At one point, she was grabbed as she tried to help her husband.
Finally, one man helped the blood-covered Donaghey into his car. He underwent surgery Friday to repair a shattered finger and broken hand. He suffered a black eye and head injuries. His arms were covered in bruises and he’s “without the use of his hands.”
That is pathetic..it's only a ****ing game
