Beer board revokes license of pub

Stepping Out Pub & Grill owner Charles Peacock volunteered to give up his beer permit if it meant making Brainerd safer.

"I don't want nobody to get hurt," Mr. Peacock said. "If it will help the community, I'll surrender my license."

In the end, it was the Chattanooga Beer and Wrecker Board that volunteered to help Mr. Peacock, voting Thursday to revoke the permit for Stepping Out, on Shallowford Road.

The establishment was the site of an early morning Thanksgiving fight and shootings that left two men wounded.

"It just concerns me, this unreported gunshots," board member Christopher Keene said. "One bullet ended up in someone's leg. But that's two bullets that cut through Brainerd, looking for someone."

Chattanooga Police Department Investigator Michael Wenger testified Thursday that witnesses told him about a "melee" inside the club before the shootings and that the altercation was gang-related.

Mr. Peacock was cited to the beer board for failing to report the gunshots and for serving food at his pub after 3 a.m., both violations of city ordinances.

He previously had been cited for operating his business after closing hours, which resulted in a seven-day suspension in 2005 and a three-day suspension in 2008.

Mr. Peacock testified Thursday that he did not hear the gunshots on Thanksgiving nor did any employee tell him about them. He said he called a police sergeant and left a message that morning because he knew about the disorder in the club, not the gunshots.

Police found three shell casings in the parking lot, Investigator Wenger testified.

Members of the North Brainerd Neighborhood Association testified that they didn't want to shut down the establishment, but they did want to see it improved.

"This establishment in no way lifts our community," said association President Cynthia Stanley-Cash. "In fact, it takes away from our community."

Board member Kathy Jones moved to revoke the license, effective immediately.

"I hope that this helps you," she said.

Mr. Peacock said beer sales represent only a small portion of the pub's business.

"I'll probably end up selling the whole thing," he said at the end of the hearing.

The beer board also suspended the permit of La Macarena on Rossville Boulevard for three days starting Thursday after employees drank on the premises and a hired security guard allowed an underage female into the business.

Manager Norma Patricia Rodriguez testified that she didn't know the ordinance forbids employees from drinking, even when off the clock, because she hadn't read all the ordinances.

CITY ORDINANCE

All permittees under this article are required to maintain a telephone in good working order on the premises and to report all fights and other public disorders occurring on such premises immediately, whether or not participants in any such disorder have left the premises.

Source: Chattanooga City Code