Excise police raid Axis Nightclub

With the help of the IU Police Department and Bloomington Police Department, Indiana Excise Police conducted a raid at Axis Nightclub early Friday morning, resulting in 68 alcohol-related citations.\nIndiana State Excise Lt. Tom Miles, whose District 5 agency is housed out of Vincennes, Ind., said the Axis raid was "an organized effort" due to the sheer volume of patrons and the particular layout of the bar. IUPD and BPD officers joined excise police to conduct the raid once officers verified Indiana alcohol laws had been broken.\n"We put unidentified officers inside the bar earlier in the evening," Miles said. "It was reported to waiting officers underage people were in the bar. To protect officer safety we turned the lights on and shut down the business for awhile. We arrested 68 minors; each one received a citation."\nAccording to an excise police statement, all minors were ticketed and released with none requiring incarceration, \nBPD Sgt. Steve Kellams said several BPD officers, including shift supervisors, were dispatched to Axis at approximately 12:45 a.m. Friday. \n"Our officers provided extra security by watching the doors, checking IDs and making sure there were no fights," Kellams said.\nIUPD Lt. Jerry Minger said IUPD officers wrote only two of the 68 citations -- both for illegal possession of alcohol. IUPD cadets also participated in the raid.\n"When you work in such a close environment like Bloomington and Monroe County, you are dealing with mutual concerns," Minger said. "If one police agency has a problem, all the police agencies have a problem ... Our role in something like this is to assist excise."\nAxis Nightclub Owner Dave Kubiak said the raid came as a "huge surprise" to him and he is frustrated Axis was "singled out" among local bars.\n"I was never expecting this," said Kubiak, who was briefed on the situation during the raid. "Typically, excise will take other steps before they reach this level. They will show up and check IDs if they think people look underage. The situation would be different if they did that and found a problem, but that never happened."\nMinger said excise police aren't required to notify local law enforcement when they will be conducting a raid. Often times, he said, IUPD will put in requests to have them come at different times.\n"They do impromptu checks," Minger said. "They don't give long advance when they will do something like this. We only know when they are coming when we call them for assistance in basketball games and other places we suspect there might be underage drinking."\nKubiak said there were about 500 patrons at the bar at the time of the raid.\n"I didn't get the number of people who were cited for having false IDs," he said. "But I assume we are looking at 10 percent. During peak time in Bloomington -- a major college town -- you can probably find 10 percent of underagers in any bar."\nIndiana Excise Lt. Miles said his office received several complaints about underage drinking at Axis throughout the last several weeks. He said the major concern was underage people gaining access to the nightclub. \nMiles said excise officers serving the District 5 post answer to more than 400 complaints in a typical year. He said excise police arrested 2,386 people in 2004 for alcohol and tobacco related crimes -- although false IDs and narcotic possession are common citations. The District 5 boundary including Monroe County encompasses Southwest Indiana at the Ohio border to as far north as Terre Haute.\nKubiak said Axis will begin to crack down on checking IDs as a result of the incident.\n"We will try harder to get bouncers to make sure everyone who enters the bar is 21," he said. \nFriday morning's excise police raid was the second since Kubiak purchased the club in July.\nExcise police raided the bar in the early December and issued between 25 and 30 citations during a sorority function.\n"In Bloomington, there's going to be more people with false IDs than most other cities," Kubiak said. "Our issue was the fact that they singled us out for no reason."\n-- Contact Staff Writer Lori Geller at lfgeller@indiana.edu and City & State Editor David A. Nosko at dnosko@indiana.edu.