Red Sox Fan Sues Yankees Over Assault

A Boston Red Sox fan is suing the New York Yankees, saying the team failed to protect him while he attended a game between the two rivals.

Charles Hillios, 40, of Chicopee, Mass., filed a suit yesterday in Manhattan Federal Court, claiming that two Yankee fans assaulted him during a baseball game at Yankee Stadium in 2007.

According to the complaint, Mr. Hillios was cheering for the Red Sox on August 29, when two New York residents began to verbally harass and insult him. An employee of the contracted security unit of Yankee Stadium, Burns International Services Corporation, allegedly noticed the men and warned them to stop or risk being ejected from the stadium.

But when Mr. Hillios left his seat to visit a refreshment stand, he says in the suit, the men "viciously" attacked him, leaving him with serious injuries for which he later required restorative surgeries.

Mr. Hillios faults the Yankees, Burns Security, and the two Yankees fans in the suit, and is asking for more than $75,000 in damages. Because the Yankees know that "emotions run high" at Yankees-Red Sox games, they should protect rival fans, he said.

A representative for the Yankees did not immediately return a phone call.

On July 4, a Falmouth, Mass., man was arrested for attacking a suspected Yankees fan with a baseball bat.