Bar may face fine or suspension

Uncle Fester's and the Jungle Room could face a fine or liquor license suspension for selling alcohol to minors according to the Indiana Alcohol and Tobacco Commission.\nThe prosecutor of the Indiana ATC may charge the Bloomington business today, said ATC Chairman Bart Herriman.\nThe Bloomington bar and grill has been under investigation since July 15 when Indiana State Excise Police entered the bar unexpectedly and issued 22 underage drinking citations.\nThe prosecutor will give Fester's an offer today and allow the bar to accept or reject the proposal.\n"If they reject it, the prosecutor will hold an administrative trial, which they must attend," Herriman said.\nThe Bloomington Police Department and the IU Police Department were present during the investigation to assist in crowd control and the orderly checking of identification.\n"This was the first time this summer when excise needed the manpower of the BPD and the IUPD to help with a raid," said BPD Sgt. Mick Williams, who assisted excise police the morning of July 15.\nWilliams, who filed the BPD's report on the raid, made two citations himself.\n"We try to let excise check the IDs as much as possible," Williams said. "I was the only person from my agency that cited anybody. The two people I cited were pointed out to me as having admitted they were underage."\nMost of the minors in the bar were given misdemeanor citations for possession of alcohol and were released.\n"Some individuals had two or three citations filed against them such as public intoxication and loitering," Bauer said.\nAccording to Indiana legal code, the illegal consumption of alcohol is a Class C Misdemeanor, which can result in imprisonment for no more than 60 days and a fine of no more than $500.\n"First offenders can have the option of a pretrial diversion program," Williams said. "They plead guilty of the crime and they usually have to go to an alcohol awareness class and pay some money. Then, they usually do community service. At the end of the year the charge is taken off their record."\nThe state excise police have the authority to check bars randomly without probable cause, but are frequently given tips concerning the location of underage drinkers.\n"We work 16 counties, and we are not targeting Bloomington in particular," Indiana State Excise Sgt. Terry Bauer said. "A lot of investigations come about because of complaints we receive."\nUnderage drinking is often linked to other crimes that happen later in the night such as vandalism and theft.\n"Often excise will get information about bars letting in underage drinkers from standard Bloomington Police reports where underage drinkers are cited," Williams said.\nEach year, the local ATC board considers renewing the liquor licenses of all the bars in the Bloomington area.\n"When the permit of Uncle Fester's and the Jungle Room comes up for renewal soon, the business will come before the local ATC board, at which point the board decides whether or not to recommend to the ATC in Indianapolis that the license be renewed," Herriman said.\nKenan Gillman, a managing partner of Uncle Fester's, would not comment on the July 15 excise investigation under advice of legal counsel.\nThe bar has, however, recently taken steps to prevent underage drinking in the establishment.\nBauer said the bar had an alcohol server-training program with a state excise police officer Thursday.\n"The training is an hour and a half and covers how to check identification, how to deal with the presence of minors in a bar, the legal responsibilities of dispensing alcohol and hours of operation," Bauer said.\nBars in Indiana are not required to conduct the free server-training classes unless the ATC orders them.\n"To my knowledge, Fester's had not been ordered to have one," Bauer said.\n-- Contact staff writer Karen Yancey at kaeyance@indiana.edu.