TRENTON, N.J. Jun 18, 2006 (AP)— Jersey City's mayor said he was arrested and roughed up by police over the weekend for intervening in an argument outside a beach bar.

Mayor Jerramiah Healy said he had just left Barry's Tavern in Bradley Beach a bar owned by his sister around 2 a.m. Saturday when he saw a couple arguing in a nearby parking lot. He said the man was jumping on the hood of his girlfriend's car.

After he calmly talked the man down, Barry said, police arrived and threw him on the ground and Maced him. When his wife tried to retrieve his glasses, police shoved her to the ground too, according to Healy.

"My lawyer has asked me not to speak, but I did absolutely nothing wrong," Healy told The Associated Press on Sunday.

Bradley Beach police did not return calls Sunday from The Associated Press.

A police spokesman told The Jersey Journal of Jersey City that Healy interfered in an investigation of the couple's argument and ignored warnings from officers that he would be arrested if he didn't leave.

Healy was charged with two disorderly persons offenses and resisting arrest.

He faces up to six months and jail and $2,000 in fines if convicted.

ABC News