FORT LAUDERDALE — A man was punched twice in the face during an argument outside of Hunter’s Beach Bar last week. His assailant says it was self-defense, but his mother fears he might never wake up again.
John Rocco Grassano, 36, known to friends and family as Rocco, is now on a ventilator in the hospital with swelling in his brain, his mother said Wednesday. She said the punch caused him to fall to the ground, his head bouncing off a pole and then the concrete, where he lay for minutes while people walked around his body, surveillance video shows.
The man who punched him, Robert Mailley, told police he hit him in self-defense, and there were no witnesses or evidence to suggest otherwise, according to a police report. But Grassano’s family and friends think there is more to the story.
“None of it feels right,” his mother, Colleen Grassano, told the Sun Sentinel as she sat next to her son’s hospital bed on Wednesday, the intermittent beeping in the background. “… I just want to know what happened. I have no idea what the altercation was about, what led the guy to do this.”
Fort Lauderdale Police responded to a call about a fight at the bar, a popular biker hangout, in the 200 block of Almond Avenue a little after midnight last Wednesday, according to the report. When they arrived, first responders were already tending to Grassano on the ground. He was bleeding heavily and breathing but “unresponsive.”
Officers then talked to Mailley, who had remained at the scene. He said that Grassano had approached him with his chest up in an “aggressive” manner which made him fear for his safety, according to the report. Mailley told the officers that he kept backing away, trying to get Grassano to stop approaching him, but he wouldn’t. Afraid that Grassano was going to punch him, he punched Grassano himself, twice, and Grassano hit the ground.
The two were strangers, according to the report, which does not say what the altercation was about.
Mailley “appeared upset by what happened” and told officers he stayed at the scene because he was defending himself, the report says. Two years ago, he said, he had to have facial reconstruction surgery after he was punched in the face, and he was afraid of going through that again.
Grainy surveillance video shared with the Sun Sentinel by the family shows Grassano speaking with Mailley outside the bar, next to two other customers. About 30 seconds in, Mailley distances himself, moving back with his hands out. Grassano then begins to walk towards him. Four seconds later, Mailley punches him. He falls to the ground, where he lies, unmoving. One of the witnesses, who appears to be dressed as a bouncer, gets up but no one rushes over at first. Then they walk over and look at Grassano on the ground. Mailley then returns, looks at Grassano, then walks off, throwing a chair over.
Police also looked at the video, which the bar owner provided. He told police he also saw Mailley backing away.
Grassano had gone to the bar with his ex-girlfriend, Jessica Lodge, according to the report, who told police she didn’t see what took place. The two had arrived only about 10 minutes before the altercation, she told police.
Lodge told the South Florida Sun Sentinel on Wednesday that the two had gone to get tattoos next door. They had broken up recently but were trying to work things out; she had moved from New Jersey to Florida to be with him.
Grassano was in a good mood that night, Lodge remembered, and she has no idea what the altercation could have been about. She stepped inside to get a beer, and when she stepped back out five minutes later, she saw him on the ground. At first she wondered what he was doing; then she realized he was covered in blood.
She said she held his head as blood streamed out of his ear, waiting for paramedics to arrive. When police came, she said she saw them take Mailley into the back of a cruiser before letting him out about a half hour to an hour later.
“The fact that police let him go, it infuriates me,” Lodge said. “You almost killed him, he’s hanging on by a thread right now.”
Officers said the evidence pointed to self-defense.
“Based on the video surveillance observed on scene, Robert’s account of what happened, and no witnesses on scene that observed the incident, an arrest was not made,” the police report states. “All statements and evidence on scene indicates that Robert was acting in self defense for his safety.”
It is unclear whether police spoke with the two witnesses captured in the video.
Friends and family are desperate for more information, which they say police have not provided. They feel that police should have arrested Mailley and that bystanders should have tried to help.
“Words were exchanged, words don’t hurt,” said Leigh Montone, a close friend of Grassano and his family. “Cold cocking someone out and borderline killing them, that hurts. He could’ve walked away at any time.”
Both Montone and Grassano’s mother said they went to the bar after the altercation to try to get answers, but no one talked to them.
Mailley could not be reached for comment Wednesday. A person who answered the phone said it was the wrong number. A voicemail left with the bar owner was not returned.
Grassano was well-known locally as a bartender, Lodge said, and lived in Wilton Manors. He was previously arrested on a domestic violence battery charge in 2021, court records show, but prosecutors filed no information.
His mother described him as selfless, a jokester and the life of the party. He’s the oldest of her kids, a boisterous New Jersey Italian family. The two were always on the phone with one another, but as she sat beside him in his hospital room, she couldn’t remember the last thing they talked about.
Lodge said he was the kind of guy people would call over to break up fights, not get involved in them himself. She can’t stop replaying the night and wondering why she left him to go inside for those five minutes.
“I really wish I overheard or was able to overhear the words that were spoken between the two of them,” Lodge said.
Grassano is now in a medically induced coma, his sister wrote on a GoFundMe site. Soon, doctors are preparing to take his breathing tube out.
“I think the doctors are preparing me for worst and hoping for best,” Colleen Grassano said. “This could be where he’s going to be for rest of his life.”
She said doctors warned her that he might have to live in a nursing home.
“He might not come back the same as he was,” Lodge said, “but I’m all for him just coming back to us.”
Det. Ali Adamson, a spokesperson for Fort Lauderdale Police, said Wednesday that detectives are still actively investigating the incident and encouraged anyone with information to contact the police department.
