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Business owner loses two appeals on Go Go liquor issues, plans appeals to Ohio Supreme Court
By ROBERT CONNELLY
AUSTINTOWN
Sebastian Rucci said he will appeal two cases to the Ohio Supreme Court that he recently lost.
The embattled business owner had appealed to the 7th District Court of Appeals on convictions from 2013 and 2014 in Mahoning County Area Court in Austintown. Both cases involved the Go Go Girls Cabaret. Rucci now owns the rebranded California Palms Hotel & Suites, which has been open for several weeks where the Go Go had been before being closed years ago.
“I am going to take them up one more level and have it reviewed further,” Rucci said.
“The judge got it right,” said Ken Cardinal, Mahoning County assistant prosecutor, who handled both cases in Austintown.
Rucci’s 30-day jail sentence from the 2014 conviction will be set by Judge David A. D’Apolito in the coming weeks, but would be delayed until appeals are finished.
The 2013 case centered on liquor violations from at least Nov. 15, 2011, to Dec. 2, 2011, when Rucci did not have a liquor license at the Go Go, court documents said. Rucci argued that he had an injunction against the Ohio Division of Liquor Control until appeals were heard on his liquor license being denied. The prosecution said he did not have a license during that time period when an undercover operation was done by state agents. Rucci argued his final appeal measure was not “heard” by the 10th District Court of Appeals, after the Liquor Commission and the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas had decided against him. The 10th District, however, ruled that the matter already had been decided.
The first appeal, which was decided May 12, was on the March 3, 2013, bench trial in Austintown where Rucci was convicted of two counts of illegal sale of alcohol and one count of keeper of a place where intoxicating liquors are sold in violation of law.
The 2014 case centered on the bring-your-own-beverage policy implemented from January 2012 to September 2012.
There was another undercover operation and raid by state agents. Rucci argues that he was not the owner at the time.
Cardinal has argued that Norman Dunlap, to whom Rucci sold the business, is a fictional character. Dunlap operated the Go Go under the name Goodfellas.
Dunlap has a pending lawsuit against Rucci alleging breach of contract, fraud and damages to be awarded at trial in excess of $25,000.
That lawsuit said Dunlap purchased one-half of the Go Go for $100,000 on or about April 1, 2012.
The second case focused on the March 31, 2014, jury trial, which resulted in Rucci’s being convicted on four counts of illegal sale of alcohol and being assessed fines, and a bench trial the same day, which resulted in a conviction on four counts of keeper of a place where intoxicating liquors are sold in violation of law.
Rucci was sentenced to 180 days in jail, 150 suspended, $500 and costs and either posting a $1,000 bond or one-year abatement for illegal sales convictions. He was fined $250 and costs for keeper-of- place charges.
On that abatement, Cardinal explained that abatement is not to shutter the newly renovated hotel but to not have liquor there for one year. “I wouldn’t say it’s a violation for a patron to have their own beer in a room” at the hotel, Cardinal said.
The businessman argued the validity of a deputy clerk issuing arrest warrants and being a neutral party when making probable cause determination in both cases.
According to Vindicator files, Rucci and his attorney and business partner, James A. Vitullo, won a federal class-action lawsuit in 2013 in the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. That case alleged Mahoning County violates the Fourth Amendment by allowing untrained court clerks to issue arrest warrants.
The Fourth Amendment bars unreasonable searches and seizures and requires probable cause for issuance of warrants for searches and seizures of people and their belongings.
In the first appeal, the 2013 case, the deputy clerk testified “she does not ‘rubber stamp’ what is put before her” and state law allows her to determine probable cause, court documents said. “Even if we were to agree with [Rucci], an amendment to state law is within the province of the Legislature, not the courts,” court documents said of a deputy clerk signing a warrant.
Rucci is adamant about changing the deputy-clerk system in Mahoning County, pointing to his legal victory in 2013 in federal court.
“These opinions are being issued by people that did not go to college,” he said. “How are you going to issue an arrest warrant where you don’t understand the intricacies” of an arrest warrant? he asked.