Man remains in ICU more than a week after brutal beating

ATHENS, Ga. - The victim of a brutal beating at a downtown Athens bar remained in intensive care on Monday, more than a week after he was attacked.

Police said they haven’t been able to talk to 27-year-old Anthony Stalling about the incident because he has been in the ICU at Piedmont Athens Regional Medical Center since the Nov. 19 attack.

It happened at Jerzee’s Sports Bar and Nightclub. Athens-Clarke County Police said one of their officers was flagged down and told of a fight in the bar during the early Sunday morning hours.

“The officer gets there and sees one of the security guards attempting to restrain a person involved in a fight,” said Epifanio Rodriguez, spokesman for the Athens-Clarke County Police Department.

Rodriguez said the officers made an arrest for disorderly conduct in the incident, but several hours later, officers were called to the hospital after getting a call from a family member of Stalling. The woman told officers Stalling had been involved in the fight and was rushed by ambulance to the hospital.

“They were able to talk to some of the medical staff there that’s when they were told he had suffered a severe head injury. They were unable to get his statement due to the fact he is not conscious and unable to speak,” said Rodriguez.

Without a firsthand account, the Athens-Clarke County Police Department is asking for the public’s help to identify several people involved in what investigators said appears to have been a fight between a group of people at the establishment.

Police said investigators are searching for surveillance video to lead them to the individuals who put Stalling in the hospital.

Jerzee’s Sports Bar and Nightclub declined to comment on the incident.