FALMOUTH, Mass. – A man was ordered held without bail Monday for allegedly beating a New York man with a baseball bat because he thought the man was a Yankees fan.
As it turned out, the New Yorker allegedly beaten in the land of the Red Sox isn't even a big baseball fan.
Police say Robert Correia, 20, and others spotted a car with New York license plates leaving a fireworks display Saturday. The group approached the car driven by William Nestor, of Northport, N.Y., and began yelling about the Yankees, according to the police report.
"When they saw the plates, they came at me," said Nestor, 29, whose family was traveling in two cars and stuck in heavy traffic after the fireworks on Cape Cod.
The police report said after Nestor confronted the group of men, Correia went to his nearby apartment in Falmouth and got an aluminum baseball bat, then struck Nestor three times.
Correia pleaded not guilty to charges of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and malicious damage to a motor vehicle. He was ordered held without bail until a hearing Wednesday.
During Correia's arraignment Monday, his lawyer, Robert Nolan, said Correia was in his apartment when an altercation erupted between a New York man and one of Correia's friends. Correia picked up a bat and ran outside to break up the fight.
When the man charged Correia, he struck him with the bat, Nolan said.
Nestor said he's not a particularly big baseball fan and didn't know the Red Sox were playing the rival Yankees over the weekend. He was treated and released from Falmouth Hospital.
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