Twelve Springfield police officers are under investigation in connection with the beating of a group of men in a parking lot following an argument at Nathan Bill's Bar and Restaurant in April 2015.

Official details of the incident, which until now has not been publicly reported, are sparse. The city's law department confirmed that the internal affairs unit of the Springfield Police Department has compiled a report on the fight and referred the case to the Hampden County District Attorney's Office, which is still investigating.

But for Paul Cumby, who says he was attacked by the off-duty officers that night, the consequences have been clear. According to medical records, Cumby suffered a fractured leg and loosened teeth after being "assaulted by several individuals" - details that did not make an initial police report on the fight, which said he only sustained "minor cuts and scrapes."

"He was clearly beaten to a pulp," Cumby's attorney Michelle Cruz said in an interview.

The city confirmed that 12 officers have received disciplinary letters, including both a group of off-duty officers accused of participating in the fight and responding officers accused of being unsympathetic.

For 18 months, the incident went undisclosed. Reached for comment, the owners of Nathan Bill's declined to speak; Police Commissioner John Barbieri would not confirm specific details; and the city's law office refused to turn over the police department's internal investigations report on the fight, citing the still-pending inquiry by the DA's office. A hearing before the city's Community Police Hearing Board is expected to take place once the DA's office completes its investigation.

"Where so many officers are involved, it is not unusual that investigation process and obtaining records as well as the review as to potential criminal charges can take a long time to sort out," City Solicitor Ed Pikula wrote in a statement. "As to the request to respond to the allegations of the individuals as you present them, the Police Commissioner has informed me that he will be relying on the Community Police Hearing Board to determine the facts of what occurred and whether there is just cause to discipline any of the officers involved."

But in an interview, Cumby said the violence was started by a group of men identified at the scene as off-duty officers, and that first responders underplayed his injuries, misstated his conduct in a police report and sent him driving home with a broken leg and a concussion.

"When they hit me, they jumped me. They stomped me. My four front teeth were knocked loose," Cumby said.

The fight took place 10 months before Springfield Police Det. Gregg Bigda was caught on video threatening to crush the skull of a juvenile suspect and plant drugs on him. But its public disclosure comes as the city is wrestling with the Bigda scandal, with 10 city councilors calling for more transparency and the District Attorney's office referring the case to federal and state authorities.

The fight

The night of April 7, 2015 began uneventfully for Cumby, a 48-year-old worker at a lawn sprinkler company who spoke in a quiet, low voice during an interview at his attorney's office last week.

He had been invited out to the bar by his cousins - the first time he was going out to the bars since his daughter was born two years earlier, he said. The four men - Cumby, his cousins Jackie and Jozelle Ligon and their friend Michael Cintron - arrived at Nathan Bill's Bar and Restaurant and began drinking and talking.

Cumby had about two shots that night, he said; he was driving and did not want to get drunk. His cousin Jozelle had substantially more, and at some point in the night approached a table of off-duty Springfield police officers.

Jozelle whistled, Cumby said, which one of the officers took as a cat-call toward a woman he was with.

"[Jozelle] says he was whistling to the bartender to get another beer. The guy said he was whistling at his girl, and it became an argument," Cumby said. "It escalated and went outside."

Cumby said he tried to defuse the situation, and at that point the dispute did not turn physical. He was then told by an owner of the bar that the group his cousin was feuding with were off-duty police officers.

Cumby's account was echoed by his cousin Jackie Ligon, who said in a separate interview that he tried to buy a drink for the off-duty officers but was rebuffed. Both Ligon and Cumby said that the bar manager invited them back inside to finish their drinks, but that one of the officers barred their re-entry.

It became clear they weren't welcome, Cumby said. One of the off-duty officers asked bar staff to kick them out, and a uniformed officer who arrived at the scene advised them to end their night early.

"The cops said, 'why don't you call it a night.' I said fine," Cumby said. "I said I don't want more trouble. Let's just go."

Cumby left his truck in the Nathan Bill's parking lot and walked with his cousins over to the nearby parking lot outside Rocky's Hardware Store. There, they had a disagreement; his cousins wanted to return to the bar and pick up the truck, while Cumby wanted to avoid the situation, he said.

He separated from the group and took a walk on Allen Street while talking to his girlfriend on his cell phone, he said.

Eventually, around 2 a.m., Cumby began walking back toward the bar; it was closing time, and he figured he would be able to pick up his vehicle without incident.

It did not work out that way.

As Cumby reached Rocky's parking lot, where his cousins and Cintron were still waiting, he saw the group of off-duty officers walking toward them from the direction of Nathan Bill's.

"I heard a whistle and somebody said 'What's up now?' " Cumby said. "When I got to the corner, we saw a mob of people coming from the bar."

The man Jozelle had argued with was at the head of the pack. As Cumby neared the crowd, he saw the man shove his cousin, he said. He tried to separate the men, and said he did not want any trouble, but then someone allegedly struck him from behind.

"They came behind me and hit me upside the head," Cumby said. "I don't know who, I don't know with what, but I was out the rest of the time."

Ligon said when the men hit his brother he swung back. One of the men came beside him, he heard a "pop, pop, pop" and he found himself on the ground unable to move; he believes he was hit with a Taser.

"They knocked [Cumby's] teeth out, they hit him in the back of the head with a baton," Ligon said.

When Cumby came to, he was in bad shape. He was concussed; he had loose teeth; he could not walk. Uniformed officers and EMTs were on the scene.

The barroom at Nathan Bill's Bar and Restaurant in Springfield.

A disputed police report

One of those officers later filed a brief report on what happened next. No charges were filed, no mention was made of the role off-duty officers allegedly played in the fight and Cumby and his cousins were described as non-cooperative with police at the scene.

"All appear to have some type of minor cuts and scrapes about their hands and faces," officer Darren Nguyen's report said. "[They] were offered medical attention. AMR arrived on scene to render services and all refused further medical treatment at the hospital. Mr. Jozelle and others couldn't describe their attackers and was very uncooperative."

But that is not how it happened, according to Cumby and medical records reviewed by MassLive. Rather than "minor cuts and scrapes," Cumby suffered a fractured leg and had teeth knocked loose; he also says he was concussed and is still dealing with mental and physical symptoms. He says that rather than him refusing medical treatment, EMTs at the scene advised him he did not need further care, despite his inability to put weight on his leg.

"They said you should be good, go home and sleep it off," Cumby said.

He also says the claim he did not cooperate with officers is false. Rather, Cumby says, he spoke to a uniformed officer for 15 minutes at the scene, saying he had tried to defuse the situation and was walking back to pick up his truck when he was attacked.

"I didn't want no trouble the whole night," Cumby said. "I was the peacemaker. It didn't work out that way. I told the cops everything that we witnessed, everything that happened."

An unresolved investigation

A year and a half later, Cumby has still not recovered. He is scheduled for surgery on his ankle early next month, and has been unable to work, he said.

And neither has the investigation into his case been completed.

Cumby met again with police in July 2015 to file a supplemental report.

"Mr. Cumby also viewed two groups of photographs and he was not able to make an identification," Capt. Trent Duda wrote in the second report. "The incident report has been changed to reflect the proper charge of A&B serious bodily injury that apply to Mr. Cumby."

The case was referred to the Hampden County District Attorneys' Office, which has not completed its investigation. He also filed a complaint with the city's Community Police Hearing Board - though the department did not make it easy, Cumby alleged.

When Cumby went to the police department to file his complaint, the officers at the front desk had him wait for four hours, he said. It was not until a shift change that a captain was notified that he was there and came out to meet him, according to Cumby.

"They just left us sitting there," Cumby said.

Cumby was eventually able to file the complaint, which he said has led to an apparently extensive investigation. He underwent at least three interviews with an internal affairs investigator, in addition to meetings with First Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Fitzgerald, he said.

The internal affairs officers showed Cumby photographs to see if he could identify his attacker. Cumby said he was fairly sure he recognized some of the officers as the men who fought him and his cousins, but that his memory was hazy after being knocked unconscious and concussed.

"I told him I don't want to falsely accuse somebody," Cumby said. "I wasn't 100 percent."

Springfield attorney Joe Smith III, who is representing Jackie Ligon, Jozelle Ligon and Michael Cintron in the case, said the District Attorney's Office asked to meet with his clients and that Jackie Ligon and Cintron went with him to the meeting. The two men, interviewed separately by a prosecutor, gave statements about what happened.

Ligon said he got very emotional at the interview. Smith, who sat in while Ligon talked to the prosecutor, said Ligon "essentially begged them for justice."

Ligon also said he was able to positively identify several of the officers from photographs, but that he has not been given their names.

As to why his clients wanted to come forward publicly now, Smith said, "These gentlemen were assured something was going to be done about this and they wanted to give the authorities time to process this and to do the right thing."

Now, Smith said, they are not confident that authorities will take action.

The results of the internal affairs inquiry are still unknown. The department has not released the results of the investigation to Cumby, Cruz or Smith.

MassLive sent a detailed set of questions to Pikula and Police Commissioner John Barbieri, asking whether the department attempted to secure security footage of the incident, why officer Nguyen's police report did not reflect Cumby's injuries and whether it could confirm or deny Cumby's account of waiting hours in the station to file his complaint.

City Solicitor Ed Pikula said in a statement that the facts of the case will be decided by the Community Police Hearing Board once the DA's inquiry is complete.

Pikula also wrote Massachusetts civil service law prohibits suspending officers for more than five days without a hearing, suggesting that the officers under investigation have not been placed on leave pending the resolution of the case.

Republican reporter Buffy Spencer contributed to this story.