JB’s supporters flood Belleville City Council meeting — again

Monday’s Belleville City Council meeting was moved from the small council chambers to the larger high school cafeteria to make room for some 60 or so supporters of J.B.’s Place.
At the Sept. 17 meeting, about 75 people jammed into the city chambers, out into the hall, and onto the sidewalks as John Bota pled his case.
The bar’s Liquor Control Commission violations were on the official Oct. 1 agenda, as requested by bar owner Bota, who claimed the citations were issued by over-zealous police officers with an agenda to put him out of business.
Bota’s hearings before the LCC on the eight violations were due to start the next day, Oct. 2.
The meeting was charged with resentment, with speakers accusing the police of lying and the city attorney accusing Bota’s unnamed attorney of lying.
Bota began the discussion, by making a statement to the council, saying he listed all the LCC violations and brought testimony in affidavit form refuting each violation. He gave the documents to the mayor.
“This could have been resolved without it coming this far,” Bota said. “Police, you brought this upon yourself.”
In a cover letter, Bota quotes city attorney Tim Cronin (who he refers to as Timothy Cronkel) as saying “it will be a cold day in hell before I even let the City look at these [complaint rebuttals].”
Bota said his attorney quoted the city attorney. But Cronin replied, “That’s not what I said. It’s a lie. I didn’t say that.”
Shawn Winekopf Richmond, spoke earlier in the meeting, and said three years ago her brother was left lying on the floor at JB’s for 1-1/2 hours before someone took him home to Sumpter and he died. She said Bota tells his staff not to do anything to draw police attention, so they didn’t call for help.
“We stand behind the local police,” she said.
Bota offered condolences to the woman and said there were several criminal investigations on the incident and, “We were found innocent in all.”
Bota said of his continued efforts, “As I say to my grandchildren, if you’re right, never give up.”
In his documentation to the council, Bota wrote that he feels he is the object of a personal vendetta, “perpetrated by a city representative,” apparently referring to Cronin.
He said he wants to clear his name, his establishment’s name and to make known to the council there were falsified comments written and there was collusion between officers.
Mayor Tom Fielder said he disagreed with Bota’s statement that the council could have stopped the LCC violations once they were written.
“We can’t stop this once it’s going through the process or we’re criminally responsible,” Mayor Fielder said. “Do we single him out? Our police chief said that is not the case.”
Fielder said one of the advantages of a small town is that they have community policing and police know where certain things happen and know where people congregate at certain times of the day, like high school dismissal time and bar closing time.
“I would never ask them to be somewhere else,” Fielder said.
He said he asked attorney Cronin to look at the violations and so he turned the floor over to Cronin, who read the police reports aloud on all the LLC violations. He said the reports were all a matter of public record.
Cronin said the police reports were turned over to LCC enforcer Daniel Bragdin who was the one who filed the complaints. An attorney from the attorney general’s office will prosecute each case.
The first one Cronin read involved a woman arrested for drunk driving on June 22 after she urinated on Sumpter Road while waiting for a train to pass. She said she had drunk two or three specialty drinks at JB’s and she named the barmaids.
The next report he read was from May 12, when police ran the plates of a car, again stopped by a train on Sumpter Road, and found the owner had a suspended license and an arrest warrant out of Westland. When they pulled him over, they noticed the smell of alcohol and so they did two breathalyzer tests, 1.8 and 1.8. He told police he worked at JB’s and when they asked how many drinks he had at JB’s he replied, “I don’t know. A few.” This drunk driving arrest was passed on to LCC’s Bragdon who cited the business for allowing an employee on premises in an intoxicated state.
The next report he read was from July 13, when said when a car that went over the center line on West Huron River Drive, and then onto N. Biggs and Potter was stopped and a strong odor of alcohol was apparent. The report said the driver said he had “too many” drinks at JB’s Place, maybe four to five Budweisers, and named the barmaid who served him. He blew .20 on the road and .22 and .21 at the station.
The next case was from June 26 and was from Van Buren Township Police who were dispatched at 12:54 a.m. to 600 Sumpter for a vehicle causing a disturbance. After observing the car, the driver was stopped and asked how much he had to drink and he replied “a lot” and that he had driven his vehicle from JB’s. The report was turned over to the LCC.
Another case Cronin read was from June 24 when Belleville Police were patrolling Belle Plaza and saw a woman walking near Paula’s Home Cookin’ with a Long Island drink from JB’s in her hand. This was turned over to the LCC because liquor is not allowed to be removed from the premises.
A June 11 report was apparently started when someone at JB’s called for police when there was a problem with getting someone to leave. When police arrived the problem man was gone, but another man was seen slouched in a chair with his chin and hand covered in blood. The police report said the man spoke with officers and his speech was heavily slurred and he appeared to have urinated in his pants. A preliminary breath test blew .24. This was turned over to Bragdin at the LCC, who signed a complaint.
Cronin said these violations, signed by an LCC enforcer, are in the hands of the LCC.
“These are all drunk drivings, but one, and I will not advise the City Council not to prosecute these drunk drivers,” Cronin stated. “If they got that drunk at your establishment, I say to the chief to prosecute.”
Bota objected to Cronin reading the reports aloud and naming the local people involved in the arrests and at the bar.
“Did they see them in my place?” Bota asked. “You don’t know they were even there. Police don’t have proof.”
Bota said that Lakeview Tavern and Bayou Grille never get LCC violations and Johnny’s Grille only got one.
After more lively comments, Bota said, “By law, my and my people’s responsibility is not to serve people who are intoxicated. We have no control over what they do after they leave my establishment. It shouldn’t have been sent to the LCC.”
Joe Bota, John’s son, said he runs the business at night and they’ve been in business for 22 years and got only eight violations in that period, and only two convictions, before now.
“Now, all of a sudden, we’ve got violations. We never had a problem before, and now we’ve got eight LCC violations in two months,” he said.
He objected to Cronin reading the reports publicly, since the cases are still in litigation.
Joe Bota blamed the problem on a “couple of young, new officers. We’re not criminals and I’m tired of being treated as a criminal.”
(After the meeting, police said that an officer had been sent to recent updated training and learned that all drunk driving tickets where an establishment is named as the source of the drinking must be sent to the LCC to review. Also, police said, in the past the Belleville Police have been praised by J.B.’s staff for breaking up fights in the parking lot and so for years police would stand by near closing time to settle things down.)
Mayor Fielder said the drivers who got the tickets took breathalyzer tests that showed they were intoxicated and in each case a reference was made to where the alcohol was consumed.
It will be up to the LCC to decide if the alcohol came from JB’s or if it was heresay.
“I don’t know how we intervene and say to the attorney general, oh, that’s not the case… If they didn’t get it there, they need to tell the LCC,” Fielder said.
“We want our officers to be proactive. This is an LCC issue, not a City Council issue,” Fielder said.
The discussion, which took more than an hour, was over at 9:17 p.m. and the large crowd exited the meeting room, leaving about a dozen residents to continue with the rest of the much quieter meeting.

PUBLISHED 10-4-07