State denies renewal of liquor license for J&L Lounge in Warren Township

January 2, 2019 at 12:05a.m.

WARREN TOWNSHIP

A Highland Avenue tavern where a man was shot to death in 2016 and another man was shot Nov. 21 will have to appeal a decision from the Ohio Division of Liquor Control if it wants to remain open.

A Dec. 27 letter says the agency has denied the J&L Lounge’s renewal of its liquor license for 2018 and 2019 because of problems at the tavern and the operator’s “disregared for the laws, regulations or local ordinances of this state.”

The bar’s owners, Lamard Richardson of Akron and Franklin Hatcher, known as Hatcher-Richardson Partnership, have the right to appeal to the Ohio Liquor Control Commission.

The tavern, which is also known as Cliff’s Lounge, 1957 Highland Ave. SW, was first awarded a liquor license in 2004.

The tavern, located just south of Warren, has interfered with “public decency, sobriety, peace or good order,” the letter says.

An Oct. 17 hearing was held to take testimony regarding the license. An investigation was also conducted to review objections to renewal filed by the Warren Township trustees.

A veteran law-enforcement officer testified the tavern has “long been a public safety concern for the neighborhood and his fellow officers,” the letter says.

Since 2008, a “pattern of criminal activity, sometimes violent, has occurred,” it says. In May 2009, there was a shooting involving a patron and an employee. In 2011, four assaults occurred, several of which resulted in physical injuries.

“In 2013, a fight along with shots fired involving patrons occurred in [the tavern’s] parking lot. In [April] 2016, a homicide occurred. The victim was shot outside the bar and found unresponsive at the front door.”

The victim was James E. Dotson Jr., 33, of Perkinswood Boulevard SE in Warren.

This year, there were police calls at the tavern for an overdose in February and assaults in January and August.

A man, 47, was shot in the back outside of the tavern Nov. 21 and drove himself to the hospital. The fight started in the bar, the letter says.