A Santa Fe-based attorney has filed a lawsuit seeking damages on behalf of Thomas Rodella Jr. against individuals and businesses associated with the now-closed Dragon’s Lair hookah parlor and tattoo lounge, but the factual allegations in the lawsuit differ greatly from witness accounts of what transpired at the local business more than three years ago.
A complaint filed in state District Court Oct. 3 alleges Chris Whitsell, Ryan Barrera and John Roybal jumped Rodella in the parking lot of the hookah parlor and retail business Oct. 6, 2009. The men injured Rodella by kicking him and striking him in the face with brass knuckles, the complaint states.
“(Rodella) has suffered damages including but not limited to past and future medical expenses, lost household services, loss of enjoyment of life, past and future pain and suffering and injuries for which he is entitled to be compensated because of the nature, extent and duration of the same,” the complaint, filed by attorney David Garcia, says.
The complaint lists Whitsell, Barrera and Roybal (referred to as “patrons and/or associates of Dragon’s Lair”) as defendants. The other entities and individuals listed as defendants in the complaint are:
• Dragon’s Lair;
• Defiant Artists;
• J & L Knives;
• Katharine Fishman, the owner of the Railroad Avenue property where Dragon’s Lair was located;
• Claudia Marquez and Steven Fierro, owners of Dragon’s Lair;
• Jennifer Montoya, owner of J & L Knives.
The complaint alleges negligence on the part of many of the defendants. For example, Fishman, as the owner of the property where the three men allegedly attacked Rodella, “owed a non-delegable duty to exercise ordinary care to keep the premises safe for the use of its visitors.”
Similarly, Marquez and Fierro were negligent in their operation of Dragon’s Lair. The complaint supports this allegations with 13 examples of said negligence, including “failing to adopt and implement reasonable rules or regulations for controlling patrons of Dragon’s Lair,” and “failing to hire qualified employees, agents or servants to enforce these rules or regulations.”
The complaint concludes by asking for actual and compensatory damages in an amount to be determined at trial.
Garcia filed paperwork with the District Court Oct. 10 on behalf of Rodella, which demanded a six-person jury trial, court records shows. Garcia filed an excusal of state District Court Judge Sheri Raphaelson the same day.
The case was assigned to state District Court Judge Sarah Singleton following the excusal, an online court records database shows.
Garcia did not return a message left at his office seeking comment for this story. Rodella could not be reached for comment.
Different version
While the defendants listed in the complaint also could not be reached for comment this week, statements made by witnesses in 2009 paint a very different picture of the events which allegedly transpired Oct. 6 of that year—and the following night.
Barrera, who at the time called himself a part-time owner of Dragon’s Lair, said Rodella showed up at the tattoo shop and hookah parlor Oct. 6 with a supposed off-duty State Police Officer. Both men were intoxicated, Barrera alleged at the time. The two men allegedly entered the tattoo area of the shop, where they were told tattoo artist Marlo Gray was not around. Rodella and the other man then entered the piercing area of the shop, an area off-limits to patrons.
“They kept barging around as if they owned the place, and they started getting up in our face,” Barrera said at the time.
Barrera alleged he asked the pair at least eight times to leave the store. Then Rodella picked a fight with Roybal, a security guard of the business. Rodella and Roybal went outside to fight, and the self-proclaimed off-duty police officer held the shop’s door closed so they could spar uninterrupted.
Eventually Whitsell, also a part-owner, pushed past the off-duty officer and broke the fight up, Barrera said. Rodella and the man previously holding the door then left. However, Barrera alleged Rodella called the shop later that night and threatened to shoot it up.
No one ever fired bullets at the shop, but two of Rodella’s uncles, then-Española Police Officer Eugene Rodella and Gabriel Rodella, allegedly returned to Dragon’s Lair Oct. 7 looking to cause trouble. At the time, Gray alleged Eugene and Gabriel Rodella—among other things—kicked him, tackled him, hit him and choked him.
Gray was later transported to Española Hospital where he was treated for a concussion and a broken toe. Whitsell was treated for a swollen jaw.
Eugene and Gabriel Rodella also allegedly destroyed a $300 display case, a wood magazine rack and a mirror, Barrera said.
Barrera also accused Tommy Rodella, father of Thomas Rodella Jr. and brother of Eugene and Gabriel, of threatening Mike Fierro, another part-owner of the store, outside the shop following the alleged altercation.
“He pointed at (Mike Fierro,) and said ‘You and me are going to talk,’” Barrera alleged. “I found it pretty threatening, the anger in his voice.”
Tommy Rodella is now the sheriff of Rio Arriba County. He did not return a call seeking comment for this story.
Just shopping
Gabriel Rodella testified during a hearing regarding Eugene’s employment as an Española police officer that he and his brother went to the shop to buy a hookah pipe as an anniversary gift for Eugene Rodella’s wife Oct. 7, 2009.
While Gabriel Rodella stood outside negotiating a price with Whitsell, a man wearing a jersey approached Eugene Rodella inside the shop and asked, “Are you a Rodella?” according to Gabriel Rodella and a statement Eugene Rodella provided to then-Española Det. Christian Lopez the night of the incident.
Eugene Rodella’s lawyer Matt McKenna argued the shop owners thought the Rodella brothers had come to avenge their nephew Thomas Rodella (who the Rodella’s maintained was beaten outside Dragon’s Lair the night before), so they launched a preemptive attack on Eugene Rodella.
Gabriel Rodella said he ran inside to help his brother and became involved only to restrain his aggressors.
The Department went on to fire Eugene Rodella in December following the hearing.
Five months after the incident the District Attorney’s office filed four misdemeanor charges against each of the two brothers in Rio Arriba County Magistrate Court, according to court records.
Eugene Rodella was charged with battery and assault against Gray, and Gabriel Rodella was charged with battery against Gray and Whitsell. Both Rodellas were also charged with one count each of criminal trespassing and criminal damage to property for allegedly entering the shop unlawfully and causing up to $1,000 in property damage.
However, then-visiting Santa Fe County Magistrate Court Judge David Segura dismissed with prejudice the charges against Gabriel Rodella and Eugene Rodella in Rio Arriba County Magistrate Court.
Lost evidence
At issue was the prosecution’s failure to turn over key witness statements, a photo lineup and a memo from former Española Police detective Bryan Martinez, who described to Lopez what he saw Oct. 7, 2009, inside the Dragon‘s Lair, where Martinez was getting a tattoo at the time of the alleged incident.
Assistant District Attorneys Peter Valencia and Orlando Torres told Segura that witness statements from Gray and Whitsell, as well as statements from other witnesses, were missing from the State Police file on the case. Valencia told Segura they were either “lost or destroyed.”
Dragon’s Lair went out of business in December 2009 amid questions over whether the business was properly licensed.