For impact, the Town Council imposes the suspension during Fourth of July week.

12:51 PM EDT on Wednesday, May 24, 2006

BY JOHN HILL
Journal Staff Writer

LINCOLN -- The La Cabana nightclub on Reservoir Avenue will have its liquor license suspended from June 30 to July 6 as punishment for three incidents of unruly behavior at the Saylesville nightclub since December, the Town Council voted Monday night.

Assistant Town Solicitor Roger C. Ross said the club owners have agreed not to contest the suspension. Town Council President Elizabeth Robinson said the council felt the suspension of the license was made more significant by the fact that it will include the Fourth of July holiday.

"We wanted to make it have a little more of an impact," she said.

Frank Milos, the lawyer representing La Cabana, could not be reached for comment.

The license suspension -- the hearing and vote had been postponed twice because of lawyer availability problems -- stemmed from three incidents at the club, one Dec. 28 and 29, another March 6 and a third on April 30. But the December case was the major problem.

That night the club was hosting a private party that was broken up by club staff when guests became unruly. More than 100 people left the club and went into the parking lot and nearby streets, some of them getting into fist-fights. The police had to call in officers from Central Falls, Cumberland and Pawtucket to get things under control.

The March 6, incident involved the arrest on a disorderly conduct charge of a man who was supposedly working security at the club but who instead got into an argument with the police who arrived at La Cabana to enforce a no-music-after-midnight ordinance. The man used racial slurs to refer to one of the officers. In the April 30 incident, the police arrived at the club to stop a wet T-shirt contest being run during a private party.

This isn't the first time La Cabana has had its liquor license suspended. In 2004, the council voted to suspend the liquor license for seven days after crowd control problems at a Columbian Independence Day festival. The club appealed that suspension, and the state reduced it to four days.

Councilman Jeremiah T. O'Grady, whose district includes the nightclub, said he agreed with Robinson that the fact that the suspension will include Fourth of July, in effect costing the club a holiday weekend and the holiday itself, which falls on a Tuesday this year, made it more potent than a conventional suspension. He added he was impressed by club ownership's attitude toward the proceedings, and encouraged that La Cabana was not going to appeal the suspension, which would have cost the town in lawyers' fees and time off for the police who would be called to testify.

"Hopefully, the message is sinking in," O'Grady said.

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