‘Served pitcher after pitcher.’ After deadly crash, Lexington bar fights for liquor licenses

A Lexington bar’s owner has appealed the recommended suspension of three alcohol licenses following the 2017 crash deaths of two customers.

Bar patrons James Houston Wallace and Justin Lynn King, both 21, died in July 2017 about a mile from SEC Pub & Grill off Harrodsburg Road outside of Man o’ War. The pickup driven by Wallace struck a tree on Keene Road about 15 minutes after he and King left the bar.

The Alcoholic Beverage Control Board said the bar’s malt beverage drink license, a special Sunday retail drink license and a quota retail drink license should be suspended for 300 days or the bar should pay a $15,000 fine.

Bingers Inc., the owner of the SEC, has appealed the decision to Fayette Circuit Court, where Judge Kimberly Bunnell has been assigned to review the case. The bar is open and can continue to serve alcohol while the appeal is pending in court.

Bingers Inc. said the Aug. 2 final order of Kentucky’s alcohol control board is “arbitrary,” “capricious” and didn’t follow the law.

The alcohol control board received anonymous information that Wallace and King had visited the SEC before the collision. Tests showed the two had blood-alcohol levels that exceeded 0.08, the level at which the law presumes a person to be under the influence. Wallace’s blood-alcohol content was 0.207 and King’s was 0.123, according to the control board findings.

“Their intoxicated state was the result of being served pitcher after pitcher in such quantities that even their server … could not unequivocally state how much each patron consumed,” the alcohol control board said in its findings of fact. “Moreover, no employees testified that they communicated with one another regarding the amount of alcohol served to these patrons.”

David Romero, president of Bingers Inc., acknowledged to the alcohol control board that it was possible the bartender inside could be unaware of the amount of alcohol served to patrons on the patio.

The alcohol control board said the bar violated the law by allowing its premises “to become disorderly and by creating a public safety risk and hazardous condition.” The law defines disorderly premises as a place that causes a risk by “creating a hazardous or physically offensive condition … that serves no legitimate purpose.”

Tucker Richardson, an attorney for the SEC, argues the bar “didn’t have a disorderly place.” And he said a $15,000 fine against the bar isn’t “in proportion with their actions.”

The alcohol control board dismissed an allegation that alcoholic beverages were sold to Wallace and King while they were under the influence. The board said the two men “did not manifest outward signs of intoxication such that a reasonable person could believe they were under the influence.”

The board also dismissed another allegation that alcohol was sold to a minor.

This story was originally published September 6, 2018 at 2:39 PM.