Cary Ichter, Ichter & Davis, Atlanta (Courtesy photo)

Nearly two years ago a dispute between two brothers—one of whom was dating the other's wife—erupted into an early morning brawl at a Kennesaw restaurant and hookah bar that left one man sliced up by a box-cutter and the other in jail.

In the aftermath, Cafe Istanbul and its owner were sued by the injured man, Kenny Rivera, who claimed the club's bouncer had held him while his brother cut him on the arm, abdomen and leg.

The club and its owner, Kalo Galoway, never responded to the suit, and on Jan. 31 a Cobb County judge awarded Rivera more than $1.4 million in a default judgment.

“We never heard from them,” said Ichter Davis partner Cary Ichter, who represents Rivera along with Skandalakis Law Group principal Mitch Skandalakis.

Cafe Istanbul has four locations, Decatur, Kennesaw, Alpharetta and Athens. The Daily Report tried to reach Galoway at all four and through an email address but was unable to contact him Thursday or Friday.

According to Ichter and the complaint Rivera filed in Cobb County Superior Court, the incident occurred on or about 1:30 a.m. on March 11, 2017.  

“According to Kenny, he and his brother had some issues,” said Ichter. “When Kenny ran into him at this club, the bouncer-security guy, who was a friend of the brother, grabbed Kenny and held him, allowing his brother to cut him up.”

Rivera's brother, Stanner Rivera, fled the scene and was later arrested but the security guard, identified as Lee Plaza in the complaint, was not.

Neither Stanner Rivera nor Lee are named in the suit.    

Kenny Rivera was taken by ambulance to an emergency room, Ichter said.

“He had a very bad gash on his abdomen and arm, gashes on his foot and leg and minor cuts to his hand,” Ichter said.

Ichter said his client, who is in his early 30s, suffered nerve damage to his arm and has been unable to return to work selling real estate in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.

Court filings indicate that there were several unsuccessful efforts to serve Galoway before Judge Kimberly Childs first issued a default judgment against him in October, an award that Ichter said “inexplicably” only amounted to $15,000.

“We're not sure what the motivating factor was for that,” he said. “We filed a motion for new trial and for additur, went in and explained that something had gone terribly wrong.”

Following a hearing Jan. 31, Childs issued an “amended final judgment,” awarding $1,404,139, including nearly $66,000 in medical expenses and $250,000 in punitive damages.  

The judgment said Galoway and Cafe Istanbul's corporate entity are jointly and severally liable for the award.   

Asked why Lee was not also named in the complaint, Ichter said it was “mainly because we figured he would be difficult to find, probably without assets, and it would just introduce one more lawyer into the situation, which would slow things down and make it  more expensive.”

A review of Cobb County's criminal docket paints a somewhat different picture of the events surrounding the brothers' fight and aftermath.

Stanner Rivera was indicted for aggravated assault and battery in the incident, but Superior Court Judge LaTain Kell dismissed the charges last year after the defendant claimed self-defense.

As detailed in Kell's order, Stanner Rivera and his wife were in the midst of a divorce, and Kenny was in a relationship with her when all three arrived at Cafe Istanbul.

The two “mostly kept their distance from each other,” Kell wrote, but eventually “exchanged words.”

During that exchange Kenny, who Kell's order said was “significantly larger” than Stanner, punched his brother “with great force without defendant taking any aggressive action.”

“Kenny knocked defendant into the hostess stand and continued to punch defendant in the body and face,” Kell wrote.

As he was being attacked, Stanner “reached into his pocket and pulled out a box cutter, which he had from his job in a warehouse, and swung the box cutter at Kenny, cutting him severely in four places,” Kell wrote. “Kenny was eventually pulled off of defendant by the bouncer, Lee Plaza, at which point defendant ran out of Cafe Istanbul and left the scene.”

Plaza and other witnesses supported Stanner's account of the fight, Kell wrote, and he testified he was in fear for his life at the time.

Kenny had asserted that his brother and others plotted to kill him, but Kell discounted the “utter implausibility” of that theory.

“Kenny's credibility was further diminished due to his pending civil lawsuit against Cafe Istanbul,” wrote Kell, granting Stanner's plea in bar last April.

In any case, Ichter said he is pleased with the judgment. Noting that Cafe Istanbul has four successful locations, Ichter said the prospects for collecting “are greater than they've ever been in my life.”