Police Go After Liquor License of Santa Ana Trouble Spots

Santa Ana, a city of about 225,000 people, has 506 liquor licenses--about 18 places per square mile in which to buy beer, wine or whiskey.

It also has chronic crime problems, and Santa Ana police are convinced that the abundance of liquor licenses in the densely populated city creates a climate in which crime can fester. And they want to do something about it.

While prohibition may not be the answer, shutting down a few bars that attract nefarious characters would be a good place to start, says Santa Ana Police Lt. Michael B. Foote.

“We’re not into the Volstead (Prohibition) Act,” Foote said, insisting that he is neither “anti-alcohol” nor a teetotaler. “But for years in town we’ve had certainbars where we have known there is a lot of (criminal) activity going on, and they require an inordinate amount of police services.”

Those bars, Foote said, are “like a focal point, a nexus. Things happen there because the bar is there. . . . The bottom line is: If you remove alcohol, there is the possibility that a crime may not have occurred.”

Other Bars Targeted Too

During the past several months, Santa Ana police and state Alcoholic Beverage Control investigators began taking steps that could lead to the closure of two bars that police say are centers for drug trafficking. And police are considering taking action against other bars as well, Foote said.

“If we can get them to clean up the premises, fine,” he said. “Otherwise, we have to ask, ‘Do we need them in the city?’ ”

Earlier this month, authorities arrested 16 people after they allegedly sold cocaine and heroin to undercover officers at the Red Turtle on South Fairview Street. They arrested eight more people, including a disc jockey and two barmaids, after undercover officers bought marijuana and cocaine at the Pub on West 17th Street.

Santa Ana has asked the Alcoholic Beverage Control Department to revoke the liquor licenses of both establishments on the grounds that they are “disorderly houses” where drug trafficking and other crimes are rampant.

ABC investigators are considering the request, said Dale Rasmussen, district administrator for the agency in Orange County. If a formal “accusation” against a bar is warranted, the proceedings that could lead to revocation or suspension of the license can take a year to 18 months, Rasmussen said. The proceedings include an administrative hearing and possible appeal.

Authorities do not need to prove that the bar owners were involved in drug-selling or other crimes--or even knew about the transactions--in order to revoke their licenses. “The mere indication of so many (police problems) is that it is out of . . . control,” Rasmussen said. “We will evaluate both of them. . . .”

Nitsa P. Ross, the owner of the Pub--a small bar that features female dancers in skimpy outfits--did not return messages left at the bar.

Elba Freeman, the owner of the Red Turtle, however, angrily disputed police charges that drugs are sold openly in her establishment. She said that drug dealers do hawk their wares to customers in a parking lot outside--which is shared by other businesses--but that she has no control over that. She has called the police and gone to talk to them on numerous occasions, but they have not responded to her complaints, she said.

“I’ve had this place for 12 years, and how many violations do I have? None,” Freeman said. (ABC official Rasmussen confirmed that she has had no violations since she first got the license in 1976). “I used to call the police regularly if I saw stuff being sold in the parking lot. But if you call the police, they just say you call too much.”

Throws Them out

Freeman said that if she sees people coming in and out of the bar from the parking lot for no apparent reason, or if she suspects they are dealing drugs in her bar, she throws them out for good. She has installed a two-camera video surveillance system to record suspicious activity.

Freeman’s attorney, Meir Westreich, charged in a letter to Santa Ana Police Chief Clyde Cronkhite that police searched the premises without a warrant during their June 2 raid, ripped apart seat cushions and a divider wall and struck an employee in the back of the head with a night stick.

“With some officers, there is a barely concealed hostility to Mexican immigrants, who make up the bulk of Ms. Freeman’s patrons,” Westreich wrote. “With other officers, there is an apparent belief that the need to combat illegal drug sales overrides the Fourth Amendment, forfeits the right of Ms. Freeman to operate her business, and supersedes the rights of law-abiding persons to be free of harassment and intimidation by police authority while they socialize in public places.”

Foote declined to comment on the specific allegations of misconduct, pointing out that the matter has been turned over to the department’s internal affairs division “to clear the air.” Police spokesman Lt. Robert Chavez said the investigation should be concluded late next week.

Foote disputed Freeman’s contention that drugs are not sold inside the bar.

Drugs ‘Inside and Outside’

“It’s inside and outside,” he said. “If narcotics trafficking is going on outside the bar, why did we recover . . . 15 grams of cocaine and 45 pieces of tar heroin inside?” He said some of the drugs were found under bar stools and seat cushions.

Even before the June 2 raid, police had submitted to the ABC reports of 47 incidents of assaults, public drunkenness, disorderly conduct, narcotics sales and other crimes that took place at the Red Turtle, Foote said. “It is one of the more notorious locations in the city,” he said.

The videotape from Freeman’s surveillance system the evening of the raid was seized by police as evidence. “We think they’ll reveal some undercover buys by our officers,” he said.

“Our goal is to control the spread of alcohol licenses before it gets out of hand, and eliminate a few places that are sucking up police resources,” Foote said. “If the city is going to have any kind of a positive impact . . . on the physical and social environment, you can’t sit on your hands.”

Foote has in his City Hall office a map of Santa Ana with hundreds of colored dots showing the location of each ABC license. The majority of the dots are in a swath that runs east and west across the city along 1st Street and in a north-south corridor along Main and Bristol streets. When applications for new licenses, or license transfers, are submitted in these areas--which are among the highest-crime areas in the city--police scrutinize the backgrounds of the business owners and the nature of the establishments.

Police Restricted

But local police are restricted in what they can do to shut down bars or prevent new ones from opening because the licenses to sell alcohol are issued by the state. Police can, and do, file protests against applications for new licenses in high-crime areas if they feel there is already an over-concentration of bars and liquor stores in the area.

The ABC need not heed the police protest, but it generally does, either denying the license outright or placing restrictions on hours of business, Foote said.

Shutting down a bar is more difficult, however. Santa Ana building inspectors have temporarily shut down troublesome nightspots for various code violations, but the bars can open again once they correct the infractions, Foote said. The department’s request of the ABC to revoke the Red Turtle’s and the Pub’s licenses on grounds that they are disorderly houses represents a new strategy for the city, he said. Miguel Pulido, a City Council member who sits on the council’s Public Safety Committee, said that it is not enough just to deny licenses in overcrowded areas and shut down a few troublesome bars. He wants to make sure that new licenses are issued to “quality establishments” to improve deteriorating neighborhoods with too many shabby bars and dusty liquor stores.