California IN BRIEF : HAYWARD : Man Sues Over Nose-Biting

A man whose nose was bitten off during a bar fight has sued the man who bit him. “Getting into a fight is one thing,” said attorney Melvin Belli of the suit against James Gallagher Jr., 26. “But when you bite somebody’s nose off . . . a human bite is more infectious than an animal bite.” Gallagher, who also faces mayhem charges in the case, is accused of biting off the nose of Tim Williamson, 38, outside the bar owned by Gallagher’s father in the town of Dublin on New Year’s Eve, 1988. Williamson and his girlfriend were leaving the bar and his girlfriend forgot her purse and went back into get it, Belli said. “Words were exchanged, one thing led to another and suddenly there was a fight,” he said. Efforts to re-attach the severed portion of nose were unsuccessful.