Tavern shut down 30 days

Police tell liquor board of ‘threat to community safety' at Butler's Place

Wednesday, Sept. 16, 2009

Three of the voting members of the county's alcohol beverage board rejected their vice chairman's motion that the permit of Butler's Place be revoked. He earlier elicited opinions from law officers that they considered the business to be a threat to the peace and safety of the community.

Administrative charges against Rufus I. Butler's business stemmed from a June 28 confrontation with police arresting a woman in the parking lot wanted on warrants, and from a man's report that he was shot in the groin the next night outside the bar.

Joseph Taylor, a friend of the proprietor and volunteer to help with the bar's security, said during the hearing that Butler's and another nightclub have been targeted to be put out of business. "There are two clubs that are on the hit list right now to be shut down," Taylor said.

Board Chairman Moses P. SaldaŅa countered, "The alcohol beverage board does not have a hit list of bars to be shut down."

Taylor continued, "Maybe not from the board, but … the statement was made by an official."

Sheriff's deputies frequent the area in part to ensure that departing customers at Butler's aren't struck by vehicles traveling on Route 235, sheriff's Cpl. Patrick Handy testified, and he handcuffed the wanted woman before 10 people rushed toward him, yelling at him to let her go.

"I thought I was going to get jumped. I thought I was going to have to release her," Handy said, and the crowd swelled to more than 100 people as more law officers arrived. "They began to hurl rocks and bottles at deputies," Handy said.

Pepper spray dispersed by police did little to subdue the crowd, the corporal said, and the mob's surge onto the roadway deterred traffic, including an ambulance responding to help a person suffering a medical condition from the spray.

Butler came outside and was told to close the bar, Handy said, and there was no other security working there that night. The law officer said police check the area also because of past "shootings, assaults and drug dealing."

Sheriff's deputy Keith Moritz testified that a woman in her 70s left the bar and was knocked to the ground by the crowd. Deputy James Stone, the county's alcohol enforcement coordinator, testified that Butler did nothing to "attempt to neutralize the situation."

The next night, a man who caught a ride to St. Mary's Hospital reported that he had been shot in the bar's parking lot, sheriff's deputies testified.

Butler earlier told police that there were only fireworks going off outside the bar and no shooting, sheriff's Cpl. Dale Reppel said, adding that Butler's comments delayed the investigation that ultimately found seven "fresh" shell casings and a bullet fragment in the parking lot.

Board lawyer Joann Wood told its members that Butler said at two previous inquiry proceedings that he would make improvements including hiring security guards and installing security cameras.

"I think you're going to find that he has not done those things," Wood said.

Moritz testified that he has made or witnessed as many as 30 arrests at the bar during the last six years, including drug-distribution charges and related weapons offenses. "He just doesn't have the security staff, and people in the community know that," Moritz said. "They can basically do whatever they want in the parking lot."

Butler, 62, said that he has owned the business for 24 years and quickly found that letting friends volunteer to assist him with the business was better than hiring security guards.

"After a couple months, the guards were as bad as the people. They were selling drugs," Butler said.

Butler said the June 28 incident was "just a bad day" involving a group from a wedding, and that he'd only been told that fireworks or a blank gun were shot off across the road on the night of the shooting. Butler said he told police earlier this month about a report of someone firing gunshots while driving past the bar, and that they responded by saying they would have him shut down.

Taylor testified that he recently began helping at the bar, by watching the parking lot.

"It looked like he's getting railroaded, so I volunteered to help him," Taylor said. "I can clarify [that concern], but I don't want to mash nobody's foot."

"Leave it alone," Butler said.

Heartic Taylor, 87, lives next door to Butler's bar and testified that he twice heard sounds in June that could have been gunshots, but he added, "From what I've observed, he runs a good place."

At the hearing's close, Wood told the board members that Butler needs more people patroling his parking lot to "control his premises." Walter Sawyer, Butler's lawyer, countered that his client and police were "surprised" by the crowd's response to the arrest of the woman, and that it's unclear where the later shooting incident occurred.

When no one on the board seconded a motion by Vice Chairman Thomas Sacks to revoke the bar's license, Sacks said he hoped that no one else would be injured, perhaps "mortally," because the bar was allowed to remain in business.

The other voting board members imposed the 30-day suspension from the shooting incident, and a concurrent three-day suspension from the earlier confrontation with police.

SaldaŅa told Butler that he agreed with Sacks' recommendation. "You're very lucky," the chairman said. "What I ask you, sir, is to fix this problem."

jwharton@somdnews.com