Facing up to 10 days in jail for allegedly refusing to close his Newhallville club, Larry Livingston sat shaking his head as a jury considered his fate.
Livingston (at left in photo) owns the Taurus Café, at 520 Winchester Ave., a windowless brick building that has been a popular Newhallville hangout for decades.
Monday, he found himself on the sixth floor of New Haven’s State Superior Court, where Judge William Holden oversaw the first day of his criminal trial. Livingston wore a black, Moda Italiana suit. Across the room, six women and one man sat in the jurors’ box, scribbling notes on red Steno pads. Livingston shook his head as city officials testified that they had caught him running an illegal, after-hours club.
Livingston has pleaded not guilty to one criminal charge of violating city zoning regulations, an offense that bears a $250 fine and a sentence of up to 10 days in jail.
“I know I haven’t done anything wrong,” said the bar-owner after court. “I’m going to keep fighting them.”
His charge stems from a cease-and-desist order that the city sent him in August, directing Livingston to stop operating as an “after-hours club or community center.” The crackdown came a couple months after the Taurus lost its liquor license.
Police Lt. Rebecca Sweeney, the area district manager, told the court Monday what she saw when officials swept into the club in August, between 1 a.m. and 2 a.m.: A DJ. A plate of fried chicken. A plate of hot dogs. Some people playing pool.
Sweeney noted finding some empty beer cans, which bar patrons said they had brought into the club. No one was busted for drinking or selling alcohol. The issue was whether the club’s social activities were permitted “after-hours.”
Under zoning regulations, an “after-hours club” or “community center” are not permitted uses in a residential zone, explained Andy Rizzo, the city zoning enforcement officer, after taking the stand Monday. Even if it doesn’t serve alcohol, Rizzo said, the Taurus would need special permission from the Board of Zoning Appeals to continue hosting parties at night.
Livingston, who didn’t take the stand Monday, said the criminal charge was the city’s latest attempt in a campaign to kick him out of business.
After his arrest on Sept. 1, 2007, he said he shut down the Taurus entirely.
“I closed it down,” he said, “because there was so much harassment coming from the New Haven Police Department.”
Livingston maintains that after he lost his liquor license in June 2007, he continued to keep the place running as a restaurant. “I wasn’t serving no alcohol” — just cigarettes, food and soft drinks, he said in an interview after court. “They’re trying to say that it’s an after-hours. It wasn’t that!”
Category Undefined
In court, the prosecution made a surprising revelation concerning his offense: The city does not have a definition for the term “after-hours.”
Wrapping up a day of testimony, Judge Holden asked the prosecution how he is supposed to explain to jurors what “after-hours” means.
Attorney Judith R. Dicine., who’s leading the prosecution for the state, revealed that under city zoning code, there is no definition.
She argued that the point is not central to the state’s position anyway: Livingston lost his chance to fight the merits of the cease-and-desist order when he declined to appeal it through municipal channels, she argued. Because he never filed an appeal, the order is deemed valid according to case law, she said.
Livingston’s lawyer, Frank Cannatelli (at right in photo at the top of this story), argued that the case should be thrown out on two counts: One, because of conflicting dates on the cease-and-desist order; and two, because city officials allegedly never told Livingston the consequences of refusing to comply.
Monday’s courtroom drama capped a years-long battle between the bar-owner and city officials, who targeted the establishment in 2007 as part of a crackdown on bars they considered “hot spots” of crime.
The battle heated up in the summer of 2007, when neighbors petitioned for a hearing before the state liquor commission to fight the renewal of the Taurus’s liquor license. After hearing hours of testimony that the bar was a public nuisance, the state liquor commission blocked the license renewal, effectively shutting down the bar.
The fight carried on through that summer, when city cops noticed that people were still gathering at the club, in violation of city zoning.
On Aug. 2, 2007, a team of city officials swept into the establishment. They issued a cease and desist to stop running an “after-hours club or community center.”
The raid did not stop neighbors from gathering at the hangout, according to the city. The city drafted a search warrant and, on the evening of Aug. 31, swept back in. On Sept. 1, Livingston was arrested on criminal charges for violating city zoning code.
From Livingston’s perspective, the arrest came out of nowhere: One day, he got a letter telling him he was in violation of city zoning regs. The letter said he had 10 days to address the concern. By the time a month had passed, he found himself in handcuffs.
“Wrist was swollen,” he said. “My hand was bruised up. That’s how bad they did me. They was trying to harass me. They was trying to close my business down because of Mayor John DeStefano.”
Rizzo later responded that the crackdown was nothing personal: The mayor had directed city staff to take a look at five “hot-spot” bars; the Taurus was the only one with zoning violations.
The bar-owner maintained he was never made aware of the consequences of violating city zoning code.
“They didn’t say you could end up in jail,” Livingston said. “They didn’t say anything about an arrest. If that was the case, I would have responded much quicker. … I just thought it was something with zoning.”
His trial is set to resume at 9:45 a.m. Tuesday.
Why wont the city go after change gothem and center street lounge like this?