Chattanooga beer board suspends Leapin' Leprechaun Pub on St. Patrick's Day
Mar. 17—Members of the Chattanooga Beer & Wrecker Board voted to hand down two 30-day suspensions to the Leapin' Leprechaun Pub and Eatery on Thursday, which happened to be St. Patrick's Day.
The suspensions stemmed from three violations that occurred at the business at 100 Market St. on March 5.
The suspensions are to run concurrently beginning on March 31. In such cases when a business also serves liquor, the board delays the start of the suspension for two weeks so the Tennessee Alcohol Beverage Commission has time to decide if it also wants to suspend liquor sales for the violations.
The Leapin' Leprechaun can continue selling beer until March 31, and it can appeal the decision to Chancery Court, which new manager Darius Johnson indicated he would do.
The restaurant was cited for not reporting a fight that occurred in front of the bar. According to police reports, owner Brendan O'Doherty told police when they arrived no fight had occurred.
Police then checked video evidence from area security cameras and saw evidence of a fight in front of the Leapin' Leprechaun. O'Doherty also gave police a false name and was later found to be hiding in the restaurant's kitchen, according to the report.
Further investigation found that O'Doherty had two outstanding warrants for DUI and several members of the staff were intoxicated, a city code violation. The business was cited for not reporting a disorder, employees being intoxicated on the premises and for operating a disorderly place.
Johnson, who had worked at the establishment before, told the board he had been hired as general manager since the incident. He said he has fired one bouncer and one bartender involved in the incident and would have fired everyone, but finding staff is difficult at the moment.
Carae Bradley also testified on behalf of the Leapin' Leprechaun and said she is O'Doherty's fiancee and that he was unable to attend because he is incarcerated.
The board on multiple occasions said it felt somewhat hampered in making its decision by not having access to any previous violations or punishments associated with the establishment due to the fact that Bertha Lawrence, administrative assistant for the regulatory bureau, has not been present for the last three meetings.
She typically keeps the minutes but also includes such information as past violations in her reports to board members for the meetings. City attorney Emily O'Donnell, filling in for vacationing attorney Melinda Foster, said she would address the issue with the city's human resources department.
Contact Barry Courter at bcourter@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6354. Follow him on Twitter @BarryJC.
