Liquor Board

The Stagedoor, a strip club on The Block, was recently fined more than $9,000 after undercover vice officers arrested three dancers on charges of offering sexual favors in exchange for money. The club was one of at least five cited in recent months after liquor inspectors, health officials and police visited Baltimore's adult entertainment hub. "The board will enforce all violations of the law with liquor licensees," said Stephan Fogleman, chairman of the liquor board, a state agency that regulates bars and adult entertainment venues in the city.

Sparked by complaints from politicians and neighborhood residents, the city liquor board suspended the liquor license of a Northeast Baltimore nightspot and set a 90-day deadline for the transfer of the license to a new location. The board's action was the climax of a long-standing battle neighborhood residents waged against the Cameo Restaurant in the 4700 block of Harford Road. Neighbors complained for years about the bar's loud music and its patrons, who blocked driveways and urinated in the streets.

Baltimore liquor board chairman Mark S. Fosler has resigned as head of the state agency and appears to be eyeing a subordinate position as liquor inspector, according to agency officials and sources familiar with the hiring process. At liquor board hearings at City Hall Thursday, commissioner Edward Smith Jr. took over in Fosler's absence. Smith confirmed Fosler's departure but did not elaborate. Fosler recently took the civil service exam to become a liquor inspector and a short time later quit his post as liquor board chairman, said Samuel T. Daniels, the agency's executive secretary.

Five Westminster establishments have been fined $300 each for selling alcohol to an underage police cadet in April, and a liquor store in Eldersburg has been fined $750 for employing an underage worker for duties other than stocking, county officials said.The Carroll County liquor board cited these establishments for serving or selling beer on April 3 to a 20-year-old state police cadet: Olive Garden in the 500 block of Gorsuch Road; Golden Palace Restaurant in the 140 Village Shopping Center; Parks Landing, 140 Village Road; Harbour House Liquors, 140 Village Road; and Carriage House Liquors, in the 100 block of W. Main St.In four instances, said Charles Kaiser, a liquor board inspector, the cadet was not asked for identification.

The fate of nine strip clubs on Baltimore's famous Block will be decided in Circuit Court after the zoning board upheld yesterday the recommended shutdown of three establishments and the temporary closing of the rest.The action by the city Board of Municipal and Zoning Appeals is the latest in a series of attempts to crack down on the once-renowned burlesque strip that police say has become infested with drugs and prostitution.At a hearing before the board yesterday, the clubs in the 400 block of E. Baltimore St. appealed suspensions of their licenses after a zoning administrator upheld police citations that the dancers in the clubs solicited for prostitution.

One of the partners in a Frederick Avenue after-hours club testified yesterday that a city liquor inspector began collecting cash payments from her establishment shortly after she became an owner in 1992.Joy Nickey, part owner of the Twilight Social Club, told a Circuit Court jury that J. Bernard "Bernie" Martin, then an inspector for the Baltimore City Liquor Board, was collecting money "whenever we saw him." She said initially the payments were made every month and a half but became more frequent.

One day after an Annapolis man was fatally shot in the parking lot of Club Hollywood, an officer of the company that operates the Parole nightclub defended the size and effectiveness of his security force."

Three local liquor purveyors charged with selling alcohol to minors could have their licenses suspended if the Anne Arundel County Liquor Board finds them guilty.The board has scheduled a hearing at 6: 30 p.m. tomorrow in the Arundel Center on charges that Odenton Liquors, Whitey's Supermarket in Linthicum and Corridor Wine and Spirits in Laurel sold liquor to minors during county police sting operations in September and October.The alleged violations were the first for each store, said Richard Bittner, liquor board chairman.

State Sen. Barbara A. Hoffman, the powerful chairwoman of the Senate Budget and Taxation Committee, testified yesterday that she dutifully endorsed all the job candidates of a political ally, finding patronage posts for them as liquor board employees in Baltimore.Hoffman, testifying in Baltimore City Circuit Court, said she never met the job candidates recommended by William J. Madonna Jr., a former state delegate. But, Hoffman said, she submitted their names anyway and they won the jobs.

Several jurors in the Baltimore city liquor board corruption case said yesterday that they did not believe the testimony of two key prosecution witnesses and would have voted to acquit the two defendants on one or both of the charges.The comments from jurors, who never got to deliberate, came as former state Del. William J. Madonna Jr. and Anthony J. Cianferano formally entered guilty pleas to charges that they conspired to block enforcement of state liquor laws. Bribery charges against the two were thrown out Tuesday for lack of evidence.

Baltimore's liquor board has revoked the license of a Fells Point bar after police were called several times this spring to break up fights at the club, according to the panel's chairman. Cheerleaders, in the 700 block of S. Broadway, was also raided in the summer by federal authorities searching for four high-powered handguns that police said had been bought by the club's owner. Liquor commissioners said Thursday that they stripped the bar of its license after a series of attacks inside the club.

Name a city that doesn't boast a vibrant and varied night life, and we'll show you a place that is probably very dull indeed. When work is done and people flock to their favorite restaurants and bars to meet and greet, they want a range of entertainment to grease the social whirl. That's why the Baltimore City Council took an important step Monday when it overturned a decades-old restriction on live music and other entertainment in bars and restaurants in some of the city's trendiest neighborhoods.

The city liquor board suspended the liquor license of a restaurant in Mount Vernon's historic Belvedere Hotel for 60 days on Thursday night after the bar was found guilty of serving customers after hours twice in an eight-month span. Red Square, located in the first block of E. Chase St., was also fined $2,250 for allowing patrons to drink after 2 a.m. and not serving food with the alcohol, according to the chairman of the liquor board. But charges that the restaurant had violated an agreement with the Mount Vernon community, which could have led to a revocation of its license, were dismissed.

Baltimore Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III is seeking to padlock Suite Ultralounge, a troubled nightclub in the basement of the historic Belvedere Hotel, calling it a public nuisance and linking it to a spate of shootings and other crime over the past year. "The violence that took place is no secret to anybody," police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said. "It's been on our naughty list for some time." The move comes two months after a Circuit Court judge overturned a liquor board decision from last year ordering the club's license revoked, saying newly devised rules governing so-called bottle clubs, in which patrons bring their own alcohol, needed to be clarified and revised.

When Baltimore's liquor board commissioners were sworn into office in April 2007, they took over an agency reeling from threats, lawsuits and internal backbiting. Charged by Gov. Martin O'Malley with restoring public trust, the three-member panel has virtually cut out the infighting. But some observers argue that the commissioners have also taken a heavy-handed approach to their oversight responsibilities, dishing out substantial fines and suspensions and revoking more licenses than is necessary.

Baltimore's liquor board suspended for six months the license for Stagedoor, a strip club on The Block, after inspectors testified that they spotted a dancer holding a used condom while giving a man a lap dance. The board also found Stagedoor guilty of allowing minors to possess alcohol at the club during the same July 11 visit by inspectors. Four youths ages 17 to 19 were allowed in and seen with alcohol. The suspension was the third substantial penalty levied by the liquor board in the past four weeks, after a six-month suspension of a Mexican restaurant's liquor license and the revocation of a Canton club's license.

The Baltimore liquor board revoked the liquor license of a Canton club Thursday night after the owner of the business violated terms of an agreement reached with community leaders, according to the board's chairman. Phantom, a dance club that opened in December in the 2300 block of Boston St., will no longer be allowed to serve alcohol, and the license will be transferred to a creditor pending a new buyer. The license was awarded to owner Shane Anderson last year with several conditions, according to the liquor board.

Baltimore's liquor board suspended the license of a Mexican restaurant in Greektown for six months Thursday, citing public urination outside the bar and a general lack of control by the owners. During the two-hour hearing, a liquor board inspector said he was standing outside Aztec de Oro, in the 4900 block of Eastern Ave., Aug. 7 and watched customers leave with open containers of beer. The inspector said several customers urinated in the open, including in the parking lot of St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church, according to liquor board Chairman Stephan Fogleman.

A lively night life and after-hours scene are indispensable to city living. But the charm fades quickly when it's accompanied by gunfire. Since last year, residents of Mount Vernon and Mid-Town have been trying to rid their neighborhood of Suite Ultralounge, a bottle club located in the basement of the Belvedere Hotel that has been linked to a string of shootings, robberies and assaults in the area. But on Monday, a city court judge ruled that the club can remain open - at least for now - despite a nearly yearlong effort by the city liquor board to shut it down.

A Baltimore judge has ruled that the city liquor board acted improperly last year when it tried to shut down Suite Ultralounge, a "bottle club" in the Belvedere Hotel that sometimes draws a violent crowd and has long been at odds with its Mount Vernon neighbors. In a Baltimore Circuit Court ruling filed Aug. 19 and released Monday, Judge Kaye Allison wrote that the liquor board must first establish rules about when to revoke the license of a bottle club before trying to close the Ultralounge.