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Bar owner’s lawsuit against Warren officials dismissed
YOUNGSTOWN
A federal judge has dismissed without a trial a $2.5 million lawsuit filed against the city of Warren, its city council and three of its councilmen by the owner of a bar that closed and lost its liquor license after a shooting outside the bar accidentally injured a sleeping neighbor.
Linda Gadd of Bazetta Township, owner of the Olympic Inn on Parkman Road Northwest, Warren, filed the suit in August 2013, naming Councilmen Bob Dean, Eddie Colbert and Vincent Flask as defendants and alleging her bar was defamed and she was denied due process of law in the events that led to the state’s nonrenewal of her liquor license.
In dismissing the suit last week, U.S. District Court Judge Benita Y. Pearson rejected the defamation claim, saying Gadd was unable to identify any false statements the defendants made about her bar.
The judge also ruled that Gadd failed to show that the defendants denied her due process before she lost her liquor license.
City council voted unanimously to object to the liquor-license renewal after a stray bullet fired outside the bar hit and injured 46-year-old Pamela Dial in an adjacent house.
“The decision to object to the renewal of the Olympic Inn’s liquor license was a lawful exercise of council’s legislative authority,” Judge Pearson ruled.
After the Aug. 4, 2012, shooting, Gadd voluntarily closed the bar.
The state’s nonrenewal of the tavern’s liquor license was upheld by Franklin County Common Pleas Court.
The shooter, Antonio M. Price, 28, of Arthur Drive Northwest, was sentenced to 14 years in prison.
After Price got into a fight with a bar patron and left the bar, someone shot at him while he was in the bar parking lot.
Price then began shooting in various directions in an effort to scare off his assailant, accidentally injuring Dial.
Warren police reported they were called 27 times to the Olympic Inn during the first seven months of 2012 to break up fights and investigate reports of gunshots heard nearby.