Alleged assault makes victim wonder what went wrong

Balraj Buttar isn't sure what he did to provoke an alleged assault from an employee at a fitness center in Carson City, but he keeps reliving the experience, hoping to somehow change the events that left him with a fractured bone in his face and two chipped teeth.

"I'm not even sleeping easy. I still think, 'How could I have avoided that?'"

Sitting in the living room of the East Carson City home he shares with his parents, Buttar, 36, talked Thursday of the Wednesday morning events at Eagle Fitness on North Carson Street that left him bloodied.

His face looks like it hurts.

Bandages hold together the split flesh under a blackened eye. He points to the dental work he had done Thursday and holds up pictures the dentist took to show where his chipped teeth were repaired. His arms hurt. His knee hurts.

Both sides agree the fight began over club membership.

Buttar said it had been three months since he last used his membership. After going for a daily walk with his father, Sukhdev, the fitness-conscious elder Buttar, shamed his son into working out.

So Buttar drove to Eagle Fitness. Once inside, he realized he didn't have his membership card with him.

"I told them that I forgot to bring my card and what should I do," he recalled.

Fitness trainer Troy Thomas ran Buttar's name in the computer. He couldn't find him in the system.

Both Buttar and Eagle Fitness owner Rene St. Pierré said Thomas then offered to let Buttar sign in as a guest. After that, Buttar said, Thomas allegedly offered another suggestion.

"He said, 'Why don't you just go home and bring in your card, the way you're supposed to?'" Buttar recalled.

And so he did, driving home, retrieving his card, and driving back to the gym.

The following events vary, depending on whose police report or retelling you get. But they all end the same. At some point, Thomas allegedly assaulted Buttar.

Buttar said it was as he looked for a manager to complain about a rude Thomas using foul language and threatening to hit him. Thomas said in his statement to deputies it was as if Buttar threatened him with his loud voice and body language.

At some point, in a quick succession of at least two punches to the face, Buttar said, he was on the floor covering himself from more blows from the enraged Thomas. Buttar never struck back.

Thomas said in his statement he wasn't sure if Buttar swung first, but the India native had his hands in a "defensive position."

"The first thing I remember when I lifted my face up is a girl saying, 'Let me clean your jacket off,'" Buttar said. "I don't remember when he walked away. I remember he kept hitting me, and I was trying to protect myself. My nose was bleeding, and my jacket was drenched in blood.

"No one in the gym helped me. I had to call for help from my own telephone," he said.

Fitness trainer Troy Thomas, 29, was arrested on suspicion of misdemeanor battery.

When Buttar and his father went to Eagle Fitness on Thursday to cancel his membership, Thomas was behind the counter.

Owner St. Pierre said he's at a loss for what to do. A number of clients who were either at the gym when the events unfolded or who have since heard about what happened came to Thomas' defense, asking he be able to keep his job. The trainer had his salary reduced and was put on 30 days' probation.

According to St. Pierré, a videotape he got from his surveillance cameras allegedly shows Buttar to be "boisterous and aggressive."

"Had Troy called 911, instead of hitting ... " he wondered, never finishing the thought.

"But it also looks like Troy was overly aggressive," St. Pierré said. "I feel horrified. I feel our employee was more at wrong than (Buttar) was."

In what seemed like a moment of reflection, the admittedly befuddled St. Pierré pondered aloud:

"I've got a master's in business, and I know the customer is always right. Why did we make the customer so wrong and become so offensive?

"How do we fix a disaster?"

Thomas could not be reached for comment.

n Contact reporter F.T. Norton at ftnorton@nevadaappeal.com or 881-1213.