Z Square Assault Account Raises Questions

An overnight employee at Z Square restaurant and bar in Harvard Square returned to work after being stabbed in his penis earlier this month, but the story he told police doesn’t add up, according to the restaurant’s owner.

According to an initial police report, two assailants outside the restaurant on JFK Street confronted the 45-year-old Bostonian in the early morning hours of July 2. One of the assailants stabbed the alleged victim in his groin with a switchblade knife before fleeing the area via the Harvard T Station.

The incident was originally reported in The Cambridge Chronicle last week, and the Boston Herald also picked up the story later in the week.

After the initial reports of the incident, however, the details of the events have been called into question.

Z Square owner David A. Zebny ’84 said that the alleged victim was not an official restaurant employee, but instead a worker contracted from an outside company.

In addition, the victim, whose name was not disclosed by either Zebny or in police reports, is not a legal resident of the U.S.

“[The victim] worked for a cleaning service we hired,” Zebny said. “The police informed us that he is not a documented worker or a legal alien.”

According to a July 12 story in the Cambridge Chronicle, the victim continued to work after being assaulted.

He tied a tourniquet around his penis to stop the bleeding and continued working for two more hours, until 5 a.m., the report said.

According to the police report, the man then decided to call an ambulance, but only after riding the T back home with his penis still bleeding.

Zebny said he was skeptical of some aspects of the victim’s story, including the fact that a tourniquet was readily available and the fact that the victim would wait over two hours to contact police after the initial result.

“[The victim] gave police a different name and has changed his story twice,” he said. “Our director of operations reviewed three days of video tape, and noted nothing that shows any kind of breach of security.”

Zebny said that he declined initial requests from the media outlets for comment, as he wanted to be sure that there was no chance of putting any of Z Square’s workers in any further danger.

“I was adamant in making sure that our workers were safe and things were internally appropriate,” he said.

The latest police reports have taken into account the victim’s various retellings of the story and now claim that the incident in fact happened outside of Cambridge. Other details of the attack, including the surprisingly long amount of time it took the victim to realize that medical attention was needed, has also been questioned.

The restaurant has yet to get in contact with the victim, and he has been on a leave of absence since the incident took place.

Additionally, it seems that the case has received little attention from police since the initial incident, according to Zebny.

Cambridge police did not respond to repeated requests for comment from The Crimson.

“The police haven’t returned our calls and we haven’t received any additional information about the worker,” Zebny said. “I believe the whole thing was a fabrication, but nevertheless, we took it very seriously and made sure our environment was safe.”

—Staff writer Mauricio A. Cruz can be reached at cruz2@fas.harvard.edu.