Bar owners appeal ruling on lawyer

YOUNGSTOWN -- Owners of a Market Street bar shut down as a nuisance by the city last year are appealing a court ruling that got a lawyer tossed off the case.
Atty. John B. Juhasz, representing Joenub Inc., said Judge Robert Lisotto of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court abused his discretion in December when he ruled that Atty. Stephen Garea had a conflict of interest.
Garea originally represented Joenub, which owned Smokey Joe's Lounge, but was removed by Judge Lisotto because he had once represented a man who had worked as a security officer at the bar.
City officials, who were seeking to close the bar as a public nuisance, said that relationship could have given Garea information that he could have used in the nuisance lawsuit.
Juhasz argues in the appeal that there was no conflict and that the city had no legal standing to raise the issue. A decision is pending with the 7th District Court of Appeals.
The bar reopened late last year as The Pulse.