Late-night brawl outside Circleville bar on East Main Street ends in arrest, assault charges still under review

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CIRCLEVILLE, Ohio. A fight outside a bar on East Main Street early Saturday, Oct. 3, ended with one man in handcuffs, and Circleville police say assault charges are still under investigation.

James Adam Haughey, 34, of Circleville, was arrested and booked into the Pickaway County Jail on a charge of disorderly conduct while intoxicated, according to the Circleville Police Department report.

Haughey has pleaded not guilty, according to Circleville Municipal Court records. A pretrial hearing is set for Nov. 4.

Officers were dispatched around 2:29 a.m. to Tootles on East Main Street for a report of a fight. According to the report, an officer had removed Haughey from the bar and warned him about disorderly conduct around 2:10 a.m., about 20 minutes earlier. A bartender told police the trouble started when she refused to serve him a double shot.

Witnesses gave officers different accounts of what happened next. Several people at the scene told police Haughey punched a woman in the face and hit a man in the chest, and two of them called him the main aggressor. One woman told officers Haughey tackled her when she walked over to check on a woman who was with him.

Haughey told officers he was defending himself and that he had been pulled to the ground and hit and choked. He showed officers scrapes on his legs. The woman with him said the other group started the fight while the two of them were waiting for a ride.

According to the report, Haughey grabbed an officer’s hand twice while the officer was trying to keep him back, and was handcuffed. Police wrote that he was belligerent and shouted insults at officers while he was in the cruiser and later at the hospital, where he refused treatment.

Officers photographed injuries at the scene. The report says the assault charges are pending further investigation, and police have requested surveillance video from a nearby bank.

Charges are allegations, not a conviction. Haughey is innocent until proven guilty.

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