Projo Sox Blog

FALMOUTH, Mass. (AP) - A Cape Cod man was ordered held without bail Monday after he allegedly beat another man with a baseball bat because he thought the man was a New York Yankees fan.

Robert Correia, 20, pleaded not guilty Monday in Falmouth District Court on charges of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and malicious damage to a motor vehicle. He was ordered held without bail until a dangerousness hearing Wednesday.

Police say Correia and others spotted a car with New York license plates leaving Falmouth's fireworks display on Saturday night. The group approached the car driven by William Nestor, of Northport, N.Y., and began yelling about the Yankees, according to the police report.

Nestor and his family were traveling in two cars and stuck in heavy traffic after the fireworks show.

"They were yelling, 'Yankees! Yankees! and (expletive) New York,' " Nestor told the New York Post. "When they saw the plates, they came at me."

A Falmouth police report said that after William Nestor confronted the group of men, Correia went into his nearby apartment and got an aluminum baseball bat, then struck Nestor three times.

His father, Bill Nestor, told the Post when his son stepped out of the car to face the group, one of the men hit him with the bat. Bill Nestor said he eventually was able to grab the bat from the man after his son was struck several times.

Nestor said he's not a particularly big baseball fan and didn't know the Red Sox were playing the Yankees over the weekend. The 29-year-old was treated and released from Falmouth Hospital.

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.

 Tags  fan violence New York Yankees

---