Judge orders Youngstown bar locked for illegal alcohol sales

YOUNGSTOWN — A lower Belmont Avenue bar that catered to young adults has been padlocked and boarded up by order of Judge John M. Durkin of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court.

On Thursday morning, Judge Durkin declared The Cell, 221 Belmont Ave., a public nuisance and issued a temporary restraining order to close it, inventory its contents, and secure it until further notice at the request of City Prosecutor Jay Macejko.

Continued illegal alcohol sales and other violations of the law at The Cell “will cause immediate and irreparable harm to the City of Youngstown and the surrounding community by negatively affecting the public decency, sobriety, peace and good order of the neighborhood,” according to Judge Durkin’s order.

Anyone trespassing on the premises or mutilating or removing the order posted at the bar will be punished by contempt of court, the order says.

Judge Durkin will conduct a 10 a.m. Jan. 20 hearing on Macejko’s request for preliminary and permanent injunctive relief against the bar, which is in the shadows of the Mahoning County jail.

Read more in Friday’s Vindicator and Vindy.com