Bruce Baughman, 38 Accused of Boorish Borders Behavior
Bare Feet At Brentwood Borders Incites Brawl
"Clipping Toe-Nails Was Final Straw"
By David St. David
Little did Monica Rach of Kirkwood know that a relaxing morning in the cafe of her favorite bookstore would turn into what one grizzled police officer on the scene referred to as "the messiest crime scene I've ever seen."
"I can't even fathom how I"m going to cope with this," she said, as she nursed a bloody nose and split lip. "I saw normal men and women, people I see everyday and whom I like turn into mad dogs. The way they went after that poor man as he was screaming and trying to run away was like one of those Scorcese movies."
"I just happended to catch an elbow to the throat by accident," she added with a grimace.
It all started around 9:30 am yesterday morning in the coffee cafe inside the Borders Superstore in the Brentwood Square in Brentwood. The"poor man" at the center of all the action , 38 year old Bruce Baughman of Manchester was sitting at one of the tables and had taken off his shoes.
"He comes in here all of the time", said Cafe Manager Bob Wayne. "He nurses a small coffee all day long and he thinks that gives him the right to treat this like his home. I think finally people had had enough of him taking off his shoes and other things."
"Other things" apparently included clipping his toe-nails which was the final straw for customer David Von Raschke of Fenton. "I think I just went into some black-out rage thing," he said as he was being led away by several Brentwood police officers. "It wasn't just me," he said. "There were probably six or seven of us who chased him through the store until we finally cornered him over in the self-help section."
Baughman, who is being treated at a local hospital with numerous facial lacerations and a broken jaw, was arrested for disorderly conduct and creating a public disturbance. Even Brentwood cop Sgt. David Spague could understand the reaction of the cafe's customers.
"This is not a very clean person to begin with" he said. "I'd venture to say that the scent of his feet may be the single most revolting thing I've ever dealt with in my 27 years on the force." He added, "It's a good thing we got here when we did or else that crowd would have killed him. Personally, I wish they would have."
