Sports Barn sues Wellington liquor license board

By Gary Raham
Wellington Correspondent

Owners of the recently closed Sports Barn Grill and Saloon in Wellington are suing the town's liquor board, but the town has asked District Court Judge Daniel Kaup to dismiss the claim. No decision had been made at press time.

The bar and its owners, Richard Present and Michael Farrell of Fort Collins, filed the lawsuit April 10, about three weeks after the town suspended and did not renew the business's liquor license. The complaint called for a monetary judgment in excess of $100,000, including attorney's fees, penalties or punitive damages. On May 22, Judge Kaup advised the Sports Barn's attorney, Timothy McCarthy, to amend the details of the complaint. McCarthy has until June 11 to do so.

The town board's action against the Sports Barn came after Present and Farrell were arrested on Sept. 23, 2005, for cultivation of marijuana, a felony offense. Present testified before the Wellington Liquor Licensing Authority that he had been an approved medical marijuana patient in California for six years, but acknowledged that he had violated the law in Colorado by growing excess supplies of marijuana. He stated he had done this to finish cultivating in his house before his child and fiancée moved in with him, as he did not want to grow marijuana in the same place as his child was living.

Also at issue was whether an apartment on the business premises was being used for marijuana use and liquor sales in an unlicensed area.

After a February hearing, the liquor board found that the "licensed premises have been operated in a manner that adversely affects the public health, welfare or safety of the immediate neighborhood in which the establishment is located." They further stated that Present's "moral character and reputation" were not satisfactory for the renewal of a liquor license.

In their lawsuit, Present and Farrell contend that the first allegation doesn't meet the criteria of the state statute and that the board has been arbitrary in its treatment of businesses, citing events and a hearing involving the renewal of the T-Bar Inn's liquor license in the shadow of DUI arrests of one of its owners.

The board unanimously renewed the T-bar's liquor license on Feb. 14, and subsequently discovered that co-owner Brenda Thompson had submitted a license application with misleading information. In a follow-up hearing, Thompson indicated that she hadn't been convicted of a crime, although she had a DUI charge from May 14, 2005, for which she had not been sentenced at the time the liquor license application was filed.

At a meeting on May 9, the town suspended the T-Bar's license for 10 days. Based on the bar's generally good record over the past 25 years, however, the liquor board also voted to waive the suspension for one year from April 9, as long as there were no other violations during that time.

Speaking for the Sports Barn, McCarthy said that a study of the transcripts of the two liquor board hearings (Feb, 28 for the Sports Barn and April 25 for the T-Bar) will demonstrate the unfairness of the decision.

"Take a look at the transcripts of the two hearings and your jaw will drop," he said.