Mayor Takes Aim At Taurus

The mayor’s club crackdown came back to Newhallville Friday, as he vowed to block a notorious bar from reopening for business.

Mayor John DeStefano held a press event Friday morning outside the Taurus Cafe at 520 Winchester Ave.

The mayor’s announcement came in response to the news that the Taurus, at the corner of Winchester and Thompson Street, has been granted a liquor license and plans to reopen.

Calling the club a ​“nexus” of crime and ​“thuggery,” DeStefano vowed to stand in the way of the club’s reopening. He said he would petition the state to investigate allegations that club owner Larry Livingston circumvented the liquor licensing process by having his relative apply for the liquor license.

The Taurus Cafe was granted a one-year liquor license on Sept. 24, according to a state website. The license is under the name Paulette A. Moye. The bar has not yet reopened, DeStefano said.

The mayor’s public stand against the Taurus Cafe is the latest in what has become a citywide clampdown on clubs following a shootout in the downtown bar district on Sept. 19. That incident involved three police officers and left two people in the hospital.

The Taurus Cafe was the target an earlier crackdown a few years ago — one that focused mostly on neighborhood nightspots, instead of downtown. Calling the Taurs a hotspot for crime and lawlessness, the city launched a campaign in Hartford to get the club shut down. The club officially closed in 2007 after the city succeeded in blocking the renewal of its liquor license.

After that victory, Mayor DeStefano predicted that Livingston would try to transfer ownership of the club in order to get a new license.

On Friday morning, the mayor announced that his prediction had been borne out.

Larry Livingston (pictured) could not be reached for comment for this story. Yul Watley, a former bouncer at Taurus, said Livingston is being ​“unfairly targeted” for crimes that happened outside his club and were beyond his control.

The mayor made his public denunciation a block away from the Taurus, taking shelter from the rain inside Science Park’s Building Four. He was joined by State Rep. Gary Holder Winfield, who lives nearby the cafe, and local Alderwoman Katrina Jones.

Although recent attention has focused on downtown clubs, Taurus has done even more than Crown Street bars to ​“disrupt and terrorize the neighborhood,” DeStefano argued. As evidence of the positive impact of its closure, he cited some statistics. In the 27 months previous to it closing in June 2007, police handled 474 calls for service from within 200 feet of the club. In the 27 months afterward, 238. Before it closed, during those same time periods, 182 calls for service were made to the club’s address. Afterward, 26.

The bar was a ​“nexus” for drug and criminal activity and ​“thuggery,” the mayor said. Although he said he couldn’t prove it, the mayor said threats to the builders and residents of a Habitat For Humanity house next door came from Taurus. The threats caused the new owner to flee; the house remains unoccupied years later.

The city will be pursuing two courses of action to prevent Taurus from reopening, DeStefano said. First, the city will push state liquor control to investigate the ownership transfer of Taurus. While it is not illegal to transfer ownership to a family member and reapply for a liquor permit, ​“that is a criteria that can be used as the basis for denial,” DeStefano said.

Second, the city will be lobbying for a change to state statutes that would require city police chiefs to sign off on all local liquor permits.

“Hartford is too far away to make these decisions” about who can open a bar, DeStefano said.

State Rep. Winfield said he would support such a change.

Alderwoman Jones promised to organize opposition to the reopening of Taurus. ​“We just not going to stand for this.”

“We’re going to fight this,” DeStefano said. ​“This is a very, very bad place.”

Taurus owner Livingston has been ​“abusive and antagonistic,” DeStefano said. About the alleged threats to Habitat For Humanity, DeStefano said it was like a ​“mafia story.”

“People were intimidated to testify” against the club, he said. When it was finally closed, it was because the city caught Livingston avoiding paying taxes. ​“Like Al Capone,” DeStefano said.

After the press conference, former Taurus bouncer Watley defended Livingston. He said the Taurus owner shouldn’t be held responsible for shootings and crimes that happen near his club. ​“You can only to a certain extent control the people that attend your establishment,” Watley said. Crime happens all over the city, even downtown, he added.

Watley (pictured) said the city should send cops to ​“inner-city” clubs like Taurus, the way they’ve flooded Crown Street with clubs. ​“It would be a deterrent to a lot of that unwanted activity.”

“Larry Livingston isn’t a drug dealer. He hasn’t shot anyone. He’s not a criminal,” Watley said. ​“I wish him luck.”

A mother of five kids who lives near the cafe wasn’t so sanguine about Taurus reopening. ​“I’m scared. I want to move real fast,” she said.

“I’m going to be optimistic,” said another neighbor, a father. ​“Anything is good when it’s doing good.”

He said he has no problem with the Taurus as long as it keeps things under control. If not, he said he might start petitioning to have it closed.