The ABC Board is apparently afraid to enforce the rules and regulations of the ABC and approve the recommendations of ABC Administration Director Bud Roberts and shut down the establishment for two weeks as punishment for violations.
Ernie Biggs has long had a notorious reputation for being a place to score illicit substances and is known as a place where underage individuals can slide right in and purchase alcoholic beverages.
That is exactly the reason Roberts took the actions that he did and ordered them to shut down for two weeks.
In December 29, 2015 employees at Ernie Biggs allowed a minor to enter the establishment and she was served alcoholic beverages. Later in the evening, her boyfriend was dragged out the front door by another bouncer and tossed like a sack of garbage onto the sidewalk.
In April 2016 board meeting, Roberts said the club should pay a $2,200 fine and not serve alcohol for two weeks for serving a minor and for a bouncer's rough handling of a 21-year-old customer, Brandon Griffin. Specifically, the bouncer, Michael Scott Tice, was said to have thrown the customer head-first onto a concrete sidewalk "in violation of ABC regulation."
*Hint to the ABC*
Go to the Rivermarket and sit outside Ernie Biggs or Willie D's and you'll see bouncers routinely tossing out patrons just like this.
*Hint to the ABC*
Go to the Rivermarket and sit outside Ernie Biggs or Willie D's and you'll see bouncers routinely tossing out patrons just like this.
The club filed an appeal of Roberts' decision and in the hearing held on July 2oth, the attorney for Ernie Biggs was unprepared and the ABC Board, afraid to impose the sanctions against Ernie Biggs, granted a continuance until the November board meeting.
Tice was charged with felony battery on January 12, 2016 and a civil suit has been filed against him by Griffin.
To avoid additional exposure, the club's manager, Shawn Priebe, fired Tice.
SCREENSHOT OF TICE'S FACEBOOK PAGE - NOTICE HE IS A SELF PROCLAIMED ASSHOLE |
MICHAEL SCOTT TICE |
Daniel Bryant, the majority owner of Ernie Biggs told reporters back in April that he was embarrassed that the club had committed multiple ABC violations. Bryant also has his hands in other Rivermarket joints, Big Whiskey's and the Flying Burrito.
ERNIE BIGGS OWNER DANIEL BRYANT ATTEMPTS TO WHITEWASH BIGGS' REPUTATION |
Then before the ink could dry on the ABC Violation Report, another minor was served multiple alcoholic beverages and was involved in a violent altercation that required emergency medical attention.
The ABC Board should have imposed the sanctions against Ernie Biggs. Perhaps they were under pressure from the Hutchinson Administration to go easy on a supporter or they simply lack the gumption to do their job.
*UPDATE* 07/23/16 - A reader informed us that the former Ernie Biggs bouncer Michael Tice uses an alias, Mike Paige, and has some arrests and cases under that name and that the cases show the name Mike Paige is used as an alias.