A man who was arrested at Anthony's Restaurant and Pub last year filed a lawsuit that claimed the restaurant failed to protect him from another patron who attacked him.

On May 15, 2019, Rayel Flores was arrested on probable cause of battery and criminal trespass following an attack on a man at the 3151 Voyager Lane restaurant, according to Joliet police reports.

No formal charges were brought against Flores, who filed a lawsuit against Anthony’s and bar patron Juan Acosta on April 20.

Flores’ lawsuit claimed Acosta grabbed him by the neck, slammed him to the ground and struck him in the face several times after the two men engaged in a verbal exchange.

His lawsuit claimed he suffered “severe personal injury,” incurred medical expenses and will “experience pain, suffering, disfigurement and disability” as a result of the alleged attack.

Flores alleged Anthony’s was negligent by failing to protect him from a “criminal act,” failing to have proper security, failing to intervene in a verbal altercation and failing to warn him of “an imminent criminal attack.”

Flores’ lawsuit also claimed Acosta “acted intentionally and or with reckless disregard” for his safety by attacking him.

Joliet police reports said officers responded to a disturbance at Anthony’s and saw multiple people arguing before finding Flores lying on the ground, unconscious and breathing.

Flores told the officers he did not recall what happened, only that his friend was trying to get him to leave and he felt a push from behind, police reports said.

Officers viewed video surveillance from the restaurant that showed Flores and his friends confronting a man near the rear exit gate, police reports said, and Flores struck the man in the face but the man then took him to the ground.

Flores said he did not know what happened and he was not sure where he was, the police reports said.

Flores was taken to AMITA Health Saint Joseph Medical Center, where he told the officers he did not wish to give a statement and he asked numerous times to see the video of the incident, police reports said.