Officer Who Bit Man's Testicles in Brawl Off Police Force

A decorated Anne Arundel County Police officer charged with assault after a Baltimore bar brawl in which he bit a man’s testicles is now off the force, authorities say.

Michael Flaig, 31, a 10-year veteran of the Anne Arundel County Police Department, was assigned to the Northern District patrol. He was suspended and placed on paid administrative duties after he was charged May 5 with second-degree assault and public intoxication, police said.

As of Sept. 23 Flaig is no longer employed by the police department, The Capital-Gazette reports. A police spokesman would not elaborate.

Flaig is serving one year of supervised probation after being convicted of public intoxication and endangering the safety of another person; the assault charge was dropped in a plea agreement.

According to charging documents, a man told police he was assaulted by two men, one of whom – later identified as Flaig -- bit his testicles during a fight in the alley behind Looney’s Pub in the 2900 block of O’Donnell Street in Baltimore. The victim was reportedly straddling Flaig during the scuffle.

A woman who saw the fight told police Flaig entered the nearby Claddaugh Pub after the brawl, WBAL TV reports. Officers reportedly found Flaig in the bar with bloodstains on his shirt.

Investigators allege that Flaig and another man attacked the victim after he confronted Flaig about touching his friend and roommate, who is a woman, reports WBAL.

Anne Arundel County’s police chief at the time called the charge that one of his officers bit another man’s testicles during a Baltimore bar fight “disturbing.”

But Flaig’s attorney, Peter O’Neill, said his client was only defending himself, and admits only to disturbing the peace.

O’Neill told the Capital-Gazette Flaig’s actions in the bar may have been due in part to job-related stress. He was one of four officers involved in the 2006 case of a Glen Burnie teenager who allegedly ran at officers with scissors and was shot by police, the Baltimore Sun reports.

»Image of Michael Flaig from Baltimore Police Department/WBAL