Cape Girardeau's Main Street Bar appeals revocation of liquor license

The state's effort to shut down a bar where an Illinois man was wounded by a Cape Girardeau police officer is on hold.

On Dec. 1, attorneys for Rick Werner, owner of Main Street Bar, 701 N. Main St., filed an appeal of the bar's liquor license revocation with the state Administrative Hearing Commission, said Peter Lobdell, state supervisor of the Division of Alcohol and Tobacco Control. The appeal stops a division order, set to take effect Friday, revoking the bar's license to sell drinks.

No hearing date has been set for the appeal, Lobdell said. Such appeals typically take two to four months, with the exact timing determined by the hearing commission based on its workload and lawyer schedules, he said.

The state wants to shut down the bar because of repeated instances where police have been called because of unruly crowds both inside and immediately outside the bar. Werner did not return a call seeking comment, but bar owners facing revocation routinely appeal the orders, sometimes to gain time to seek a new owner.

In the most recent incident involving police at the bar, on Sept. 27, Cape Girardeau police officer Joseph "Joey" Hann shot Jordan T. Modicue, 20, of Tamms, Ill. In that incident, police said Modicue was pointing a black gun at the head of another man when he was ordered to drop the weapon. Police said he turned and did not drop the gun. Hann fired, believing Modicue intended to fire at officers.

Prosecutors reviewing the incident called Hann's actions justified and also declined to file charges against Modicue.

From February to May, the bar was closed for 20 nights because of activities there in 2007. The bar served a five-day suspension for allowing drinking past 1:30 a.m. and a 15-day suspension for two separate Sept. 7, 2007, incidents that drew large numbers of police officers.

In the first call, officers responded to a fight in which a woman was struck in the face with a beer bottle. A half-hour later, police returned on reports that shots had been fired to find a large brawl and crowds fleeing the scene.

Werner also operates Independence Place, 5 S. Henderson Ave. If the Main Street Bar revocation is imposed, Lobdell said Werner will also lose his license to operate Independence Place.

"If a revocation is enforced, that owner loses all ability to hold any kind of liquor license and may never have another liquor license," Lobdell said.

The division typically will give an owner time to dispose of a bar that must close due to a revocation at a separate location, Lobdell said.

rkeller@semissourian.com

388-3642

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