The Portland Press Herald / The Maine Sunday Telegram

March 12

Police ask city to deny club new liquor license

ELBERT AULL

— By

Staff Writer

Portland police have asked the City Council to reject a liquor license application from the Cactus Club, the latest of several bars owned by Thomas Manning to face public scrutiny.

The recommendation follows a pair of underage-drinking stings at the Fore Street club and a shooting just a few steps away that left an active duty U.S. Marine in a wheelchair.

The underage drinking and frequent police visits to the club have ''raised significant concerns regarding public safety and the ability of the bar's management and staff to regulate the service of liquor to minors,'' police Lt. Michael Sauschuck wrote in a recent review of the club's liquor license.

Manning did not return phone calls seeking comment Tuesday or Wednesday. His attorney, David Turesky, declined to comment.

City councilors will take up the license issue at their Jan. 21 meeting. The debate comes just a month after councilors rejected a liquor license application from the Slainte pub on Preble Street for serving alcohol to minors last year.

The Cactus Club was cited in May and October for selling alcohol to minors -- both times when police sent underage volunteers into bars to test whether they would be served.

Police, in their report to the city, noted an increase in calls since Manning changed the name of the bar, formerly known as The Mercury, last year.

Police recorded no liquor-license violations and fielded seven calls from December 2006 to November 2007, when the bar operated under the old name, according to the license review.

Police reported 52 calls during the latest review period, from December 2007 to November 2008. One of those incidents made headlines, when a 21-year-old Portland man shot and severely wounded an active-duty Marine during a fight on the sidewalk outside the club on June 24, 2008.

The victim, James Sanders, who was at the Cactus Club with his brother before the shooting, was hospitalized with liver, lung and spinal injuries.

Brandon Brown was charged with attempted murder, elevated aggravated assault and reckless conduct with a dangerous weapon.

Brown was outside the bar before the shooting and spotted Sanders inside. He later intervened when the Marine was involved in a fight with a third party on the sidewalk and fired his handgun -- the bullet striking Sanders in the torso and narrowly missing a bystander, police said.

Brown contends the shooting was in self defense and pleaded not guilty in August; his trial is scheduled to begin in late February.

Police were called to the Old Port bar every month from June to September to respond to fights that reportedly began there.

Police were summoned to the bar in July and said they found a man lying in a puddle of blood inside when they arrived. Officers said he had been involved in a fight with two men who knocked the victim out and kicked him repeatedly as he lay on the ground.

In another incident, police came to the club to break up a fight in September involving ''several subjects with knives,'' according to the license review report. The fight was over by the time officers arrived, but police tracked down and arrested one man who fled the scene.

Police ''have concerns about Mr. Manning's ability to manage this establishment over the long term,'' according to the license review.

Police Capt. Ted Ross declined to comment in advance of the council hearing.

Turesky said in a letter to City Attorney Gary Wood that his client would be ''eager to comply with any recommended changes'' put forth by police and city officials if they allowed him to keep his license. He said the business and its predecessors at 416 Fore St. have had their liquor licenses renewed without trouble for the past eight years.

Manning would have a 15-day window to appeal the decision to the state liquor board if the City Council pulls the Cactus Club's license.

Manning and his bars have faced scrutiny from councilors and police before. Councilors pulled the liquor license of his former club on Forest Avenue, Metropolis, in 1999 after a police raid during an all-night rave netted a variety of illegal drugs.

The council rejected a liquor license application for another Manning bar, Digger's/Liquid Blue on Wharf Street, in 2007 after numerous calls and reports of the nightclub's staff fighting with patrons. Manning was ordered to complete 30 hours of community service after he pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct stemming from a fight outside the club in July 2006.

Staff Writer Elbert Aull can be contacted at 791-6325 or at:

eaull@pressherald.com