HUNTINGTON PARK : Casino Keeps Liquor License, Judge Rules

A judge has ruled that the Huntington Park Casino can continue serving liquor despite allegations that the club creates law enforcement problems.

The decision ended efforts by the state Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control to revoke the club’s liquor license. Police had reported dozens of arrests at the casino for incidents ranging from drug sales to fighting and public drunkenness.

But after a city police official and a city councilman testified on behalf of the casino, Administrative Judge Samuel Reyes ruled that the club can continue to serve alcohol. The judge concluded that the casino is “not viewed as a center of criminal activities or law enforcement problems.”

Reyes issued his ruling in April. The casino announced the decision earlier this month, after the deadline for filing appeals had passed.

Police Chief Frank E. Sullivan, who was a captain at the time of the hearing in March, told the judge that the casino is not one of the city’s “hot spots” and that he would rather assign personnel “to patrolling streets where drive-by shootings occur, to investigating homicides and aggravated assaults, and to stopping rampant drug trades at the local recreation park.”

ABC attorney David B. Wainstein said the agency did not appeal the judge’s decision, although “we still have no doubt the club causes problems. It’s just one of several cases we have. We can’t afford to retry it.”