Meeting: Salem Licensing Board was held Tuesday, October 9, 2012 at 6:00 pm in the third floor conference room, 120 Washington Street. Present were members John Casey and Rick Lee, Investigator for the Board, Det. Sgt. James Page and Det. Peter Baglioni and Melissa Pagliaro, Clerk. Absent was Chairman, Robert St. Pierre.
Approved: Application for various Street Performers License. Applicants:
*Jesse Armerding
*Peter O’ Malley
*Rebecca Homans
*Ione Andrade
*Aaron Wear
All applicants were asked if they received and signed a copy of the Street Performers rules & regulation. All applicants said they did.
Mr. Lee motioned to approve.
Mr. Casey seconded.
Approved: Application for a Store Fortunetelling License and two sub licensees. Applicant: Marshall Tripoli for Arcana (Halloween town), 57 Wharf Street and two readers, Peter White and Elizabeth Mortell.
Mr. Casey said that Mr. White would need to provide a copy of the lease fr4om Mr. Tripoli.
Mr. White said that he does tarot and palmistry.
Ms. Mortell said she does astrology.
Mr. Casey reviewed the Fortunetelling ordinance with them .
Mr. Lee motioned to approve contingent upon receiving a copy of the lease.
Mr. Casey seconded
Approved: Application for a sub licensee fortunetelling license at Nu Aeon. Applicant: Barbara Alonzi.
Mr. Casey asked what her specialty is.
Ms. Alonzi said she has been a reader for the last 3 years in Salem and that she does tarot cards and mediumship.
Mr. Lee motioned to approved.
Mr. Casey seconded.
Approved: Application for Individual Fortunetelling License. Applicant: Richard Carvino.
Mr. Casey asked what he specialized in.
Mr. Carvino said that he does tarot cards.
Mr. Casey asked where from.
Mr. Carvino said home at 2 Mt. Vernon Street.
Mr. Casey reviewed the rules & regulations regarding an Individual license.
Mr. Lee motioned to approve.
Mr. Casey seconded.
Approved: Application for Common Victuallers License. Applicant; ‘Jo Freedom, LLC, 196 Essex Street. Present: Robert Kneeland.
Mr. Casey asked him to tell us about the business.
Mr. Kneeland said that it is the former Café Valverde. He said his mother owns the unit and he plans on continuing to run a coffee house.
Mr. Lee asked if there was a copy of a lease, the floor plan and a menu.
Mr. Kneeland said the floor plan and menu is with the Health Department and he will get a copy of the lease.
Mr. casey said they will approve the application contingient upon getting those three item s to Ms. Pagliaro.
Mr. Casey asked about the hours.
Mr. Kneeland said that they will be from 7am-7pm 7 days a week.
Mr. Lee motioned to approve.
Mr. Casey seconded.
***Entertainment Application:
Mr. Casey said that the application is requesting I phone, 1 person acoustic, movies and a small tv.
Mr. Lee said he is not comfortable with movies, he said that is to broad.
Mr. Casey said he does not agree with movies either.
Mr. Lee asked how many TV’s he would have.
Mr. Kneeland said one for now.
Mr. Casey said if it ended up being more he would need to come back to the Board, he also said that abutter’s should not be able to hear volume outside of the establishment.
Mr. Lee motioned to approve.
Mr. Casey seconded.
Hearing: Bangkok Paradise, 90 Washington Street. Present: Attorney JP Story and Jesus Franco, owner and two door men, Benjamin Magee and Jonathan Medeiros.
Mr. Story said he is familiar with the allegations as is the LB and his client understands why they are before the Board tonight. He said that after witnesses and testimony tonight he said their position is that the alleged violations do not rise to sanctions or penalties. He asked that if the Board does impose any sanction or penalties that they be held until after October 31st as this is a big time for business in the City.
He said of the 1st allegation, a minor being served in the establishment. He said no one ever saw the minor inside nor did any one see her being served. He said she is not here and cannot be cross examined. He said no one gets through the door without a valid ID. He said Mr. Franco is very serious about this. He said he will talk later about the switch over at 10pm. He said that in light of this, Mr. Franco is looking into swiping machines.
As for the second allegation; allowing and illegality or disturbance. He said that he refers to page three of the police report where it states that a promoter inside the Bangkok asked police to stick around because of the large crowd that was inside of the premise. He said that the doormen wand and pat people down before entering to make that sure that patrons are safe inside. He said that on a busy night there are two to four doormen 2 at the door and one or two milling around inside the front entrance.
Mr. Casey asked if Mr. Story has been around the Bangkok in the later hours of the evening.
Mr. Story said he has several times but that he is uncomfortable answering witness questions about this.
Mr. Lee said this is not a court proceeding and he should just answer any questions if asked.
Mr. Story said he has been down on 4 or 5 occasions at between 11pm and midnight. He said that Mr. Franco is taking all the steps he can take.
Mr. Casey asked Mr. Franco if he realizes that this is a college town with 10,500 students.
Mr. Lee asked Mr. Franco when he took over the license.
Mr. Franco said in January.
Mr. Casey said that the Board asked him how he would run the establishment. Now after 10 pm no food is being served and that this was going to be a family restaurant not a nightclub.
Mr. Franco said he does not remember that and that he is running it the same way the previous owner ran it.
Mr. Story said he feels as though there are due process issues and that he does not feel as though it is at the level of having sanctions imposed.
Mr. Casey asked Det. Baglioni to speak.
Det. Baglioni gave a report to LB members and Mr. Story. He then called Officer Johnson to testify.
Officer Johnson said that he has been an officer in Salem for 27 years. He read his narrative of the report from 9/1/12 for the record. (copy in file)
Det. Baglioni asked if the minor had told him she had been drinking in the establishment and if he seen a copy of her ID.
Officer Johnson said she told him she had 2(two) beers and that her ID had a DOB of 3/27/1992.
Det. Baglioni asked Officer Johnson to describe what the situation looked like when he arrived.
Officer Johnson said that his attention at was drawn to Cpt. Gilligan trying to break up a fight between two females and went to assist him. He said there was a large crowd of people on the sidewalk and surrounding area believed to be exiting the establishment, he said the crowd was around 100 people at around 12:58 am.
Mr. Casey asked if the establishment was closed at that point.
Officer Johnson said he did not notice at that point.
Mr. Story asked if last call was at 12:30.
Officer Johnson said he was not aware of that.
Mr. Story asked if it was 12:30 would nt it make sense that a large group was existing and said that he never saw Nancy Phok (minor) inside.
Mr. Johnson said he did not.
Mr. Story said that his client knows that he is also being called before the Board next week and since this incident he has been on high alert.
Det. Baglioni called Officer Burke.
Officer Burke said that earlier in the night a “promoter” for the club approached police and asked them to stay in the areas because there was a very large crowd inside. He said that was at about 12:15 am.
He said that later in the evening there were 75-100 people some in process of leaving , lots going from establishment to right out front. He said some patrons left and some refused. He said he saw a bouncer trying to remove a female from the establishment who was very combative, He said he got the patron from him and placed her under arrest.
Det. Baglioni asked Officer Burke to look at a picture to see if it was the minor in question.
Officer Burke said the picture was not her.
Mr. Story said the picture was not the same person.
Officer Burke said no.
Mr. Story asked if the people that were asked to leave were refusing
Officer Burke said a lot were.
Det. Baglioni asked if they were patrons from inside the establishment
Officer Burke said they were
Det. Baglioni called Sgt. Gagnon
Sgt. Gagnon said he has been an offier for 26 years and he was the street supervisor for the shift.
Det. Baglioni asked him to explain incident.
Sgt. Gagnon said that a radio call came in regarding a large group and a fight in the area of Bangkok paradise. He said when he arrived the traffic was blocked from the amount of people in the street and the police vehicles. He said one loud, very aggressive female was arrested for disorderly when she refused to leave. He said that the entire police shift had to respond to this incident on this night.
Mr. Casey asked if he knew the name of the individual arrested.
Sgt. Gagnon said it was Elizabeth Quezada.
Mr. Lee asked how many officers were on duty.
Sgt. Gagnon said 7.
Mr. Casey said this incident tied up the entire shift. He asked if there were any bouncers out front.
Sgt. Gagnon said that he saw Mr. Magee and that the bouncers acted pretty much as spectators.
Mr. Casey asked how long this continued.
Sgt. Gagnon said for 15-20 minutes. He said he was forced to have officers drive those that were arrested to the station and then come back.
Mr. Story said that the bouncers try to move the crowd along but cannot be expected to physically move them.
Sgt. Gagnon said that Murphy’s has established an excellent system to move patrons along at the end of the night.
Mr. Lee said when Murphy’s was having issues he investigated them. He said that the licensee’s responsibility does not end at 1am at the door. He said they can’t allow patrons to get drunks and then let them out and close the doors behind them.
Mr. Story asked if the system that is in place at Murphy’s is something they would like to see here. Finally he asked if the Sgt. had seen Ms. Phok inside the establishment.
Sgt. Gagnon said he did not.
Detective Baglioni called Cpt. Gilligan and asked him to introduce himself and describe this incident.
Cpt. Gilligan said that he has been an officer for 20 years. He said deals with special operations and a number of other things. He said he was assigned the walking beat that evening and there had been at one point a conversation with a promoter at the club relative the size and tone of the patrons inside. He said that he told this person that if they could be in the area they would. He said at 12:45 he parked his unmarked cruiser outside. He said after observing the crowd not moving that he put his lights on. He said he always tries to let doormen handle it first. He said he and Officer Burke got out and tried to clear crowd for about 10 minutes. He said he observed a fight inside the establishment at the doorway. He said that eventually other units were asked to respond and that every unit on shift
ended up there. He said the crowd became very unruly because someone got arrested. He said at that time another fight between two females broke out and both were eventually arrested. He said that someone from inside did seek help, that they were trying to be proactive however they are grossly understaffed to handle the amount of people they have inside. He said if he was to pull the tapes you would see how non-compliant the crowd was. He said they were belligerent and bordering on violent. He said Saturday seems to be ok. He does not know if it has to do with their entertainment or what.
Mr. Casey asked if he knew they were inside of the establishment.
Cpt. Gilligan said that they were inside.
Mr. Casey asked if they were over served in his opinion.
Cpt. Gilligan said he could not determine that but he was certain that both females were inside of the establishment.
Mr. Story asked if he witnessed Phok being served.
Cpt. Gilligan said no.
Mr. Story asked him about additional doormen at Rockafellas and O’Neill’s.
Cpt. Gilligan said he is being asked to speculate. He said those are different size crowds, different staff and different establishments. He said Murphy’s has a substantial amount of doormen they staff. He said it’s not always successful but they are doing much better than previously.
Mr. Story asked if it was the same issues Murphy’s had.
Cpt. Gilligan same there are some analogies that can be drawn; one being the inability to properly move crowds at closing time.
Det. Baglioni asked why the promoter asked for help at closing time.
Mr. .Franco said he doesn’t know. He said he didn’t know he asked.
Det. Baglioni said the promoter never told the owner that he asked for police help.
Mr. Casey asked if Mr. Franco id here during these times.
Mr. Franco said he is.
Mr. Casey asked how many staff was on 9/1.
Mr. Franco said there were 3 bartenders, 5 doormen and a waitress.
Mr. Casey asked how many during a regular weekday.
Mr. Franco said usually 2 bartenders and 2 or 3 doormen.
Mr. Lee asked what time he stopped food.
Mr. Franco said 10 pm.
Mr. Casey asked if the doormen walk through crowd and if they are TIPS trained. He then went over acceptable forms of ID to take with Mr. Franco. He also suggested the machines are good ideas for his own benefit.
Mr. Mcgee, one of the doormen said that he is TIPS trained and he turns a lot of people down for not having proper ID’s.
Jonathan Medeiro said that he counts heads and checks ID’s.
Mr. Lee asked what type of crowd they have on Friday nights.
Mr. Franco said he has some promoters.
Mr. Lee said maybe they are not the right promoters.
Mr. Casey said they must drastically change their methods.
Det. Baglioni said that after listening to all the information tonight he believes that the Police made their case that there was indeed an underage person who was served. He said that the Chief would like to speak as well.
Police Chief, Paul Tucker said that this has been a concern for several weekends and the station is worried about the escalation. He said that having an entire shift respond to one area leaves the entire City bare and as the Chief he cannot have that. He said that he has been out the last two Friday night from 11pm-1am and watched the staff at Bangkok. He said on that night the crowd was very large and that si not even a fraction of the crowd that has been out there in the weeks before. He said he asked this LB to realize the seriousness of this and take all measurements possible to alleviate and fix this immediately.
Mr. Lee said that he would like to continue this until the next meeting on October 15 so the Board nay reviews past progression steps with these incidents in the past.
Mr. Casey said this matter will be continued without a finding until the next meeting. He said changes need to happen immediately.
Commun-
ications:
OLD/NEW:
Adjourn-
ment: Mr. Lee motioned to adjourn.
Mr. Casey seconded.
Respectfully submitted,
Melissa Pagliaro
Clerk of the Board
Submitted: October 15, 2012
Approved: October 22, 2012
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