Five men charged with roughing up a cop, a firefighter and a Port Authority police officer in a wild Brooklyn bar brawl are furious cops have not also arrested the off-duty service members.
The accused men - including Dan Golden, 23, nephew of Brooklyn state Sen. Marty Golden - claim they were tossed out of The Kettle Black in Bay Ridge early Saturday and then chased down by the off-duty officers.
"The feeling of all five of them is why are they the ones who are in trouble since they didn't even start the fight to begin with? They were defending themselves," said attorney Arthur Aidala, who is representing Golden and John DeCarlo, 22.
Police officials rejected Aidala's argument, stressing that the only people who were assaulted were off-duty cop Paul Aparo, Firefighter Rosario Cicero and Port Authority Officer Ryan McCarthy.
McCarthy, 27, has a busted jaw. Cicero, 30, suffered a cut to his arm that severed an artery and required surgery, his dad said from their Bensonhurst home.
"He tried to break up a fight and they beat the s--t out of him," said Cicero's father, who did not give his name.
Aidala said Cicero and McCarthy's injuries are shielding them from charges.
"It seems like the people who got injured the most became the victims and the people who didn't became the defendants - as opposed to who started the fight," Aidala said.
Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes, a pal of Sen. Golden, will request a special prosecutor be appointed to the case, a spokesman confirmed Sunday.
The booze-fueled mayhem started when Aparo, 27, was chatting with two women and became involved in a dispute with a group of patrons that included DeCarlo, of Staten Island. DeCarlo's sister is a cop, and their dad is a deceased NYPD detective, neighbors said.
It was unclear what sparked the violence, but police said the argument ended with DeCarlo smashing a bottle over Aparo's head.
Aparo was on the ground, getting pummeled, when McCarthy and Cicero recognized him and came to his aid, police said.
Attorney Michael Cibella said his clients - Kevin Crowley, 23, a former Marine, his brother Michael Crowley, 20, and Peter Jung, 23 - were led outside by bouncers and then followed by McCarthy, Aparo and Cicero.
"This fight was over inside the bar - it was broken up," Cibella said, claiming the bouncers were urging the off-duty service members to remain inside. "They pushed their way out and came chasing after our guys."
Police sources said DeCarlo and his friends used knives and broken bottles and trounced the three civil servants about a block from the bar.
"They were the ones who were assaulted," a police source said of McCarthy, Aparo and Cicero. "They didn't do anything."
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