Most hockey related fights on the ice involve two players taking out frustrations that have built up during the game, but this case is different.
It involves a former NHL enforcer who got caught up in a brawl at Cheers Pub in Delta on 70th Ave and Nicholson.
Garrett “Rocky” Burnett was known as an “enforcer” when he played in the NHL -albeit a short stint. This time some morons wanted to fight in a pub, not really a shock, but the sad part is that Garrett was somehow involved.
Regardless of what he did in the NHL, it didn’t protect him on this night as he ended up on life support. After years of dealings in the court’s, the B.C. Government is suing more than 30 people, including the Delta, B.C., Police Chief in a way so as to recover what it spent on Burnett’s lengthy hospitalization and recovery.
The B.C. Supreme Court lawsuit was filed August 9th, Burnett stated; was smashed over the head with a bar stool, injuring his brain, putting him in a coma and on life support.
Delta Police Chief Jim Cessford was named as the person responsible for the two investigating officers, Paul Uppal and Lorne Pike, who the lawsuit said failed to safeguard exhibits such as video surveillance.”He subsequently failed to conduct a full and thorough investigation of the assault and failed to keep any adequate record of such investigation,” the lawsuit said of Uppal.
The lawsuit said Pike was assigned to collect surveillance video from the bar and the hard-drive computer that held a recording of the fight and events leading up to it.
“The surveillance video and hard drive were both subsequently lost or destroyed.
“Delta Police spokeswoman Sgt. Brooks said she doesn’t know of any charges laid in connection to the brawl and can’t comment on the lawsuit.”We don’t want to compromise due process when the matter is before the courts,” Brooks said.
The fight happened on Boxing Day, 2006 at the Cheers Nightclub inside the North Delta Inn. The lawsuit lists the owner of the inn, a dozen of its employees and 10 unknown patrons as additional defendants.”
On several thousand occasions in the years preceding 2006, the Delta Police Department was called to the premises to respond to complaints and requests for assistance in respect of physical altercations around the premises,” the lawsuit claims.The government’s lawsuit alleges the bar owner and its employees failed to make sure Burnett would be safe, didn’t properly alert emergency responders after the assault and didn’t have a proper system for watching alcohol consumption.
The lawsuit said staff failed to subdue exchanges of threatening behaviour and language at the bar leading up to the fight. “These exchanges escalated into a violent fight between patrons, during the course of which the assault on Mr. Burnett occurred.”
The lawsuit outlines a long list of injuries Burnett suffered on top of his brain injury, including broken facial bones, chipped teeth, loss of speech and co-ordination, double vision, and memory loss.The allegations have not been proven in a court of law.
Garrett Burnett played 39 games for the Anaheim Ducks in the 2003-2004 season and was involved in 22 fights and spent 184 minutes in the penalty box. He logged one goal and two assists.
The court action is filed under the Health Care Costs Recovery Act, and is one of about 300 cases filed every month by the provincial government in order to recover health-care costs of an injured person.
No dollar value has yet be mentioned.
Don’t be too quick to judge, let’s hear both sides?
Burnett played primarily in the ECHL before signing as a free agent with the Sharks June 2/98.
He was used solely as an enforcer or fighter for his career. His minor league career, he amassed 2,562 PIM’s for 13 different teams.
In the 99-2000 season, in 58 games with the Kentucky Thoroughblades (AHL) he had 506 penalty minutes.After signing with the Ducks (July 25/03) Garrett made his NHL debut in the 03–04 season.
Burnett’s first career NHL goal came against Brent Johnson of the Coyotes March 17/04. He played 39 games and registered 184 PIM’s while scoring one goal and adding two assists.
Burnett participated in 22 fights in his only NHL season with the Ducks.
His reputation for having a “face of stone” was solidified in his March 19, 2004 fight against Sharks Scott Parker who sustained a broken hand from the fight.
Burnett signed an NHL one way contract for the 2004–05 season plus a one year option, but due to the NHL Lockout (04) only played briefly as the player-assistant coach for the Danbury Trashers of the UHL in 2004.
His last game played was in the Quebec Leagur (Ligue nord-américaine de hockey) on December 17/06.
He was suspended by the league for throwing a net at an opposing player.
