The Brink Lounge is banning hip-hop shows indefinitely after 16 Madison police officers responded to a call from a Valentine's Day hip-hop party where a fight broke out close to bar time.

Security staff called the police but defused the fight before officers arrived at the near east side venue, 701 E. Washington Ave.

Police said they arrested four people because they wouldn't leave after management closed the club.

At least two party attendees, however, are accusing police of using excessive force and needless pepper spray during the arrests that followed. At least one formal complaint has been filed against police as of Monday afternoon, according to Lt. Linda Kosovac, who handles internal investigations for the Madison Police Department. Because there have been arrests, she added, the case would need to go through the court system before an internal investigation could take place.

Madison hip-hop emcee Rob Dz said Monday afternoon that he had talked to his lawyer and was in the process of filing a complaint against police.

Dexter Patterson, who has organized hip-hop events at the Brink and elsewhere in the past, said the initial fight left no property damage or injuries and was between two people over "jealousy-type issues." several others successfully broke it up, he added.

The irony in the situation, he said, is that "the only significant injury that night was caused by the hands of Madison police officers," not by people who attended the event. The police "elevated the tension in the building 100 times more than it was with the fight. It was very, very unprofessional."

This was the first police call to the venue, according to general manager Matt Brink. He's upset that police were called, but he said his security staff did the right thing and that officers did a "great job" in handling the situation. Now he's worried about the public image of the Brink Lounge in the aftermath of the incident.

"We're not going to do any more hip-hop. Our main reputation is for having good live music, and we want to focus on that. It's a format issue," he said. "We're not going to take any chances."

The incident early Sunday morning reopens an old wound in the local hip-hop scene.

The Brink is not the first venue to ban hip-hop in the past decade. Several others over the years have canceled events or banned hip-hop altogether after fights broke out at shows and required calls to police. Hip-hop artists contend that violence only breaks out at a small percentage of shows and within a small group of repeat troublemakers, while venue owners say that hip-hop isn't worth the risk.

Brink said he worked with the promoters of the Valentine's Day party three times before and hadn't had any problems.

"They were generally distraught by police being called because they take pride in their events," he said.

According to Madison police, additional officers from the Capitol Police Department assisted the 16 city police officers who arrived at the Brink shortly before 2 a.m. Sunday. The fight that broke out included chairs being thrown, but the Brink's in-house security quelled it before police arrived.

According to a police department news release, Mitchelle B. Lyle, 22, refused to leave the club as officers tried to clear it out. They arrested three other people who allegedly tried to intercede on Lyle's behalf. Lyle was charged with disorderly conduct; Michaela A. Machicote, 22, for resisting a peace officer and battery to a peace officer; Nicole L. Stadfeld, 29, Fitchburg, for obstructing a peace officer; and Robert J. Franklin, 35, Madison, for obstructing a peace officer.

Lt. Kristin Roman was not present at the Brink Saturday night, but she said in an interview Monday that police reported that some of the party attendees were "confrontational and verbally abusive."

"It was a chaotic situation and they were trying to take a combative person into custody," she added.

The whole incident, which lasted no more than a few minutes, left one officer with a scratched face and Machicote with a swollen lip, according to police.

But Patterson, who is also an emcee in the local hip-hop group L.O.S.T. S.O.U.L.S., said that police overreacted.

Police slammed one woman to the ground and punched her twice in the face, he said. "She was begging the officers to get off of her and all they did was continue to inflict more pain. The woman was screaming over and over that she did nothing wrong," he wrote Sunday night in an e-mail to the Capital Times.

"They had their knee to her neck," he said later.

Patterson's mother was working the door at the Brink, he added, and was pushed by a female police officer.

Patterson said that when Rob Dz "pleaded" with police to stop, they pepper-sprayed, handcuffed and assaulted him, leaving him with an injured shoulder and his glasses missing. Later, they let him free.

"If anybody knows Rob, you know he's one of the most nonviolent people you could meet," he said.