This is the newspaper account of the Valentine Dance brawl:
Joseph Anthony Nunnari and Robert Marcus Bonifay, who were students at Catholic High School at the time of the dance, admitted to taking part in a fistfight on the dance floor that eventually sparked a clash between students and Escambia County sheriff’s deputies.
After being questioned by law enforcement, Bonifay admitted to shoving Steven Helmkamp, a Gulf Breeze High School student. Nunnari said he punched Helmkamp, who suffered a broken nose.
The two men still could be required to make monetary payments to cover Helmkamp’s injuries. A hearing to determine whether restitution is appropriate is scheduled for later this month.
After Nunnari struck Helmkamp, Deputy Jeremy Jarman, who was working an off-duty security detail, rushed onto the dance floor to break up the fight.
Jarman grabbed Travis Roth, a Gulf Breeze student who was 17 at the time, from behind. Jarman wrote in his report of the incident that Roth appeared to have been reaching back with this fist closed, as if he were attempting to strike another student. (Note -Roth had nothing to do with the fight. The room was dark. Jarman approached Roth from behind and didn’t identify himself to Roth)
Jarman said Roth turned and hit him in the face. After Jarman knocked the boy to the ground, several students began shouting that he had arrested the wrong student.
Note: Had Jarman and the chaperones turned on the house lights and stopped the music – this whole incident could have been avoided. Jarman would have been able to find the real guilty parties, instead of roughing up an innocent kid.
