WESTFIELD – The License Commission voted last night to impose two suspensions on businesses found to have violated state law and regulations after conducting public hearings to collect information.
The Commission conducted a hearing on the violation of selling an alcoholic beverage to a person under the age of 21 at Ryan’s Package Store on Franklin Street. The violation occurred on Friday, March 28 during an alcohol compliance sting operation conducted by the Westfield Police Department.
In that sting two persons under the age of 21 were sent into the store without identification and were able to purchase a six-pack of beer, exiting the store and delivering the beer to a waiting police officer.
The violation is the third to have occurred in the past year and all were the result of a sting conducted by the police. The committee suspended the store’s license to sell alcohol in the past, but held six days in abeyance.
The commission’s decision to impose an additional suspension was complicated by the fact that the state Alcoholic Beverage Commission also netted the store in a sting operation, with its violation hearing slated for August.
Another complication is that the store owners also requested to be allowed to continue their check-cashing business during the suspension of the package store license, a request which needs the review and approval of the ABCC. The owners will be required to physically segregate that check-cashing area from the alcohol sales area.
The Commission voted to impose two three-day suspensions on July 7, 8 and 9 and again on July 14, 15 and 16.
The Commission also found that Paddy’s Irish Bar and Grill was in violation of ABCC regulations when a staff member severely beat an intoxicated patron, sending the victim to the Baystate Medical Center.
According to a witness the employee, the shift manager, was “throwing the victim around like a rag doll” causing serious bodily injury. The employee was arrested on charges of assault and battery with serious bodily harm.
The restaurant owners relieved the employee of his duties in Westfield, although he remains an employee at a Springfield restaurant, and ordered the employee to seek anger management and other counseling.
The commission imposed a six-day suspension that will be kept in abeyance for a year and ordered the pub owners to post the local commission’s regulation, which prohibit putting hands on a patron except in self defense. The commission also ordered that the owners conduct further employee training.
