TALK ABOUT BEING A ‘BAD SPORT’
Hockey wife, socialite sis sued over bloody bar rumble
Put them in the penalty box. Ladies night turned into a hockey fight at an Upper East Side gay bar when the stunning wife of famed New York Ranger defenseman Brian Leetch and her socialite sister threw down the gloves with the singing bartender, according to a lawsuit.
The barkeep was beaten so badly by the gorgeous goons that doctors needed seven staples to close his head wound, his lawsuit claims.
Mary Beth Leetch, 49, and Tracy Murphy, 44, who is married to Rosecliff Capital hedge funder Michael Murphy, were partying with a third gal pal on May 12 at 2 a.m. when they were asked to leave Brandy’s Piano Bar, a source said.
The women had ordered cocktails at the tiny East 84th Street joint where staffers perform at the piano. But once they were ejected, they allegedly refused to pay their tab — a measly $33.
“We don’t pay for drinks,” they sniffed, according to a source. “Gentlemen pay for our drinks.”
A ruckus ensued, and when the barkeep, Greg Goodbrod, 45, and waitress Maria Gentile, 55, tried to usher them along, the ladies turned tougher than any Blueshirt, a witness told The Post.
“You’re fat, you’re ugly and that’s why you’ll never make it on Broadway!” one of them allegedly spat at Goodbrod, a witness said.
Just as the women were escorted through the door, one of them reached back inside, grabbed Gentile by the hair and dragged her out with them, the witness added.
Once out on the sidewalk, the women allegedly banged on the storefront windows and door — apparently because Murphy had left her cellphone inside.
When Murphy retrieved the phone, she threw it in the face of a friend of Gentile’s who had followed the server outside to help her, busting his lip open, the witness said.
“They were like a pack of mongrels,” the witness said. “I’ve never seen two skinny, innocentlooking people act like that.”
Goodbrod was also attacked, according to a Manhattan Supreme Court lawsuit he filed last week against Leetch and Murphy.
“That poor guy’s head was bleeding,” the witness recalled.
Gentile, meanwhile, suffered shoulder injuries and a cut on her hand which left a scar, according to her lawyer, JP Delaney, who also represents Goodbrod. Gentile is also expected to file a lawsuit.
“It doesn’t matter who you think you are, you cannot come into New York City and assault somebody. We won’t stand for it,” said Delaney.
Leetch, a mother of three, and Murphy, a mother of six, were charged with assault, harassment and criminal mischief and released on desk appearance tickets. The NYPD said the women were not held for arraignment because they had no prior arrests and were not considered flight risks.
The sisters’ lawyer, Joe Mure, insists they were the real victims.
“They appeared to be unwelcome the second they walked in the door,” he told The Post.
Leetch and Murphy had been out to dinner and just wanted to listen to some music when they walked into Brandy’s, he said.
“They were abused by the bartender and the people inside of the bar. Unfortunately these ladies went through a terrible night they will never forget,” the attorney said.
According to Mure, the women were inside for five or 10 minutes and didn’t “immediately” order drinks, which appeared to set the staff off. “They wanted them out of the place,” he said.
One of the women had a door closed on her arm and both were bruised, he added.
“Regardless of who they are married to or who they are, these are people who did not deserve to be treated like this,” he said.
Delaney said his bar-staff clients “stand by the truth that they reported immediately to the NYPD.”
Brian Leetch, 50, retired in 2007 after 18 seasons in the National Hockey League. One of the team’s most popular players, he was a key member of the 1994 Stanley Cup champions and his number 2 was retired to the rafters of Madison Square Garden in 2008. In 2009, he was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame.
In 2012, Murphy and her husband sold their Time Warner Center apartment for more than $19 million, according to a report.
Leetch and Murphy’s father, George O’Neill Jr., own the famed O’Neill’s Restaurant in Queens, where the 1986 New York Mets went to celebrate their World Championship.