OCEAN CITY — A Pennsylvania man was taken into custody last weekend and charged with first-degree assault following an alleged brutal beating of another man on a midtown Ocean City street.
On July 7, the Ocean City Police Department received a call from a woman who told officers her son had been brutally beaten during a fight with other men on Trimper Avenue. The victim’s mother said her son and another friend had been at a house party on Trimper Avenue and left around 2 a.m. when they encountered other men on a nearby porch.
According to the witness, the other men left the porch and attacked her son and his friend. She told police her son had been knocked to the ground and was hit and kicked repeatedly while attempting to cover up in a fetal position. The witness told police after her son had allegedly been brutally beaten, the two assailants fled the scene.
The witness told police after the assault, she drove her son to Atlantic General Hospital where he was treated for numerous injuries including two black eyes, a broken nose, a completely broken upper jaw, two broken orbital bones, a Maxilla Ridge fracture and a split tooth. The victim, later identified as Richard Garry, was then taken to Shock Trauma in Baltimore where he underwent facial surgery. His jaw was wired shut and he had numerous plates and screws put into his face during the surgery.
After getting “sucker punched,” Garry told police, “Then I got grabbed, thrown, punched a bunch of times in the face and then was kicked in the face at the end when I was lying on the ground. I was on the ground and bleeding everywhere.”
The victim’s friend corroborated the story with his own version supplied to the OCPD. The friend said he and the victim told the group they did not want any trouble and tried to continue on when they were confronted by the hostile group. The friend said one of the males punched Garry, knocking him to the ground. The friend told police members in the group then began punching and kicking Garry while he was on the ground and that one of the suspects, later identified as Richard Boggess, 22, of Verona, Pa., was doing most of the punching and kicking while the victim was on the ground.
OCPD detectives went to the house described by the victim two days later on July 9. The detectives met with other males including Boggess, who allegedly told police he knew why they were there. Boggess told police he and the others were sitting on the porch when Garry and his friend walked by. Boggess said the two men were intoxicated and started yelling at a couple of girls walking down the street. When Boggess and the others on the porch told them to stop yelling, the victim and his friend wanted to fight them.
Boggess admitted hitting the victim twice in the face, but did not admit knocking him to the ground and continuing to hit and kick him. Boggess told police he only ran away because the victim and his friend were trying to jump him. Boggess repeatedly told police the victim and his friend were on his property and he was only trying to defend himself.
One of the other men on the porch with Boggess was also interviewed. The witnesses said he observed Boggess grabbing Garry and start punching him in the head. The witness told police both parties instigated the fight and it got out of control. The witness told police Boggess hit the victim repeatedly.
OCPD charged Boggess with first- and second-degree assault for the July 7 incident. He was taken into custody last Saturday and was later released on a $25,000 bond.