By Joe Gerrety
Journal and Courier - 6/16/00

The former bartender who served 10 drinks in 21/2 hours to a man who later killed himself and two other people in a vehicle crash likely won't be selling liquor again.

James W. Irwin, 55, of Lafayette, who is serving a 180-day sentence in the Tippecanoe County Jail for criminal recklessness, has had his server's permit revoked by the Indiana Alcoholic Beverage Commission.

The revocation came last week not because the ABC was able to prove administrative charges that Irwin served an intoxicated person or allowed minors to loiter in the bar he was tending. The revocation was approved June 6 after Irwin failed to respond to several ABC notices about the alleged violations.

Still in limbo is the expired liquor license of the Mirage, the bar at which Irwin was working the day of the alleged violations.

Jeffrey Pedone Trout, 39, of Lafayette spent the early afternoon of March 21, 1999, in the Mirage, 3215 S. 18th St., drinking rum and Coca-Cola.

He left the bar after consuming 10 drinks and 15 minutes later lost control of his pickup truck on County Road 350 South, crossed the center line and crashed head-on into another vehicle.

Trout was killed, along with the occupants of the other vehicle, Sarah Towery, 24, of Auburn, Ill., and Chip Smith, 20, of Riverton, Ill. Trout had a blood-alcohol content of .27 percent, well over the legal limit of .10 percent for driving in Indiana.

No longer a bar

Shortly after the incident, the bar closed. It reopened in August 1999 as an all ages club, which recently relocated to Valley Plaza on South Fourth Street.

Irwin was convicted in April of criminal recklessness and was sentenced to 180 days in jail. He was found not guilty of serving an intoxicated person.

Both Irwin and the Mirage faced separate administrative charges before the Alcoholic Beverage Commission, accused of serving an intoxicated customer and allowing minors to loiter in the business.

Indiana State Excise Police investigators based the charges on security videos from the Mirage's own surveillance system.

In addition to showing Irwin serving Trout 10 drinks, the videos also captured two boys who appeared to be less than 10 years old in the bar area for about 10 minutes, according to a case report in the Mirage's ABC file.

Under ABC rules, the Mirage could face fines and revocation of its liquor license.

Charges on hold

Frederick Bauer, prosecutor for the ABC, said Thursday that Irwin's server's permit was revoked June 6 because he failed to respond to the charges.

But Bauer said he has not prosecuted the Mirage aggressively because it is no longer in business as a bar and its owner, Rodger Heer, allowed its three-way liquor license to expire July 25, 1999.

If Heer decides to seek renewal of that license, either to go back into the bar business or to sell the license, he'll have to resolve the ABC charges first, Bauer said.

"I've not pressed to set them down for trial," Bauer said. "As a practical matter, at this juncture, there's no need to do that when the place is closed."

In the meantime, the Mirage's three-way liquor license -- a piece of paper potentially worth about $120,000 -- can't be sold. A three-way liquor license, the most valuable type of license issued by the ABC, allows its holder to sell beer, wine and hard liquor.

Contacted by the Journal and Courier Wednesday, Heer had no comment about his plans for the Mirage liquor license.

No buyers right now

Under state law, communities are allowed roughly one three-way liquor license per 1,500 people. And because the city of Lafayette has annexed several businesses that hold such licenses, the city is far over its quota, meaning no new licenses will be issued by the state.

"I really don't see any new permits being available for this area, even after the census," Lt. Mike Easterday of the excise police said. "That's why they're such a hot commodity."

Charles Sanchelli, a Lafayette Realtor who specializes in brokering business sales in Greater Lafayette, said he's not aware of anyone seeking to buy a three-way liquor license in Lafayette right now.

But if someone were actively shopping for one, the price tag likely would be about $120,000, he said.

The last three-way liquor license Sanchelli helped a restaurant acquire, more than two years ago in Lafayette, went for $110,000, he said.

One prospective purchaser earlier this year was willing to pay $125,000, Sanchelli said, but that transaction never occurred.

-- Contributing: David Smith/Journal and Courier