The Golden Star Cafe on Main Street that was shut down by the state for two months for serving more than 80 underage Sacred Heart University students and also had employed two off-duty city police officers in violation of department rules has been allowed to reopen under conditions set by the Department of Consumer Protection.
In April police raided the bar in what appeared to be a party for Sacred Heart college students. Infractions were issued to students for underage drinking. Police said they were also going to cite the owner, Gregory Kapetaneas, for numerous liquor violations. Perhaps more surprised than the students were the two off-duty police officers moonlighting as bouncers.
One of the underage students was also the victim of a sexual assault by a man posing as an Uber driver.
Partying Sacred Heart University students have been a toothache for the city, particularly in the North End where many SHU students rent apartments. It places an added burden on public safety. The burgeoning Sacred Heart campus proper is located in Fairfield, but the school’s initial dormitories were built across the line in Bridgeport during the early years of Joe Ganim’s first mayoralty. As the school has blossomed from its infancy as a commuter school launched by the Diocese of Bridgeport to a multi-purpose institution, growing pains have spilled over to Bridgeport.
Golden Star Cafe has been allowed to reopen under the following conditions, in part:
1. Suspension: The premises will remain suspended until June 12, 2016 at which time the suspension of the premises will be lifted and the premises may reopen.
At the time that the premises reopen, the owner agrees that the following will be in place:
2. Dress Code- the establishment will have established written and posted standards of the dress code.
3. Video Surveillance- the owner agrees to maintain the same level of wide-angle surveillance cameras sending images to a digital video recorder (DVR) with a thirty day memo. Recordings from the DVR will be available to the Bridgeport Police Department for investigative and evidentiary purposes upon reasonable request by the Bridgeport Police Department, so long as the requested recording has not been recorded over by the time of the request.
4. Employees- all employees of the permit premises, whether full-time or part-time, engaged in the sale and/or delivery of alcoholic beverages (wait staff, servers, bartenders, bar backs) will undergo Training for Intervention Procedures (TIPS) within forty-five (45) days of reopening.
5. Minors, Juice Bars, and Police Notifications: the owner agrees that no minor will be allowed within the permit premises unless accompanied by a parent or legal guardian, or with a spouse of legal drinking age, or as part of a juice bar event as codified in law, namely section 30-22c as depicted in the below statute:
Sec. 30-22c. Juice bars. Notification of local pollee re scheduled events.
(a) As used in this section, “juice bar or similar facility” means an area within a permit premises in which nonalcoholic beverages are served to minors, and “permit premises” means premises operated under a cafe permit.
(b) The holder of a cafe permit may operate a juice bar or similar facility at a permit premises if the juice bar or similar facility is limited to a room or rooms or separate area within the permit premises wherein there is no sale, consumption, dispensing or presence of alcoholic liquor.
(c) The holder of a cafe permit shall provide written notice to the chief law enforcement officer of the town in which such permit premises is located in advance of specific dates and hours of any scheduled event at which the permit premises or a portion thereof will be used to operate a juice bar or similar facility. Such notice shall be sent (1) by certified mail, or by electronic mail to the designated electronic mail address for the chief law enforcement officer, -and (2) in a manner so it is received by such chief law enforcement officer not less than five days, and not more than thirty days, prior to the date of such scheduled event. The chief law enforcement officer of the town in which such permit premises is located may designate one OJ more law enforcement officers to attend any such scheduled event at the cost of such permit holder.
(d) Nothing in this section shall exempt the holder of a cafe permit from compliance with any other provisions of the general statutes or regulations of Connecticut state agencies concerning minors, including, but. not limited to, the prohibition against the sale of alcoholic liquor to minors. The presence of alcoholic liquor or the sale or dispensing to or consumption of alcoholic liquor by a minor at a juice bar or similar facility is prohibited.
In addition to the above, all members of the security staff must wear matching clothes and have the word “SECURITY” in large letters across the front and back of their shirt. The security team must be licensed and bonded. The bar ownership must develop a plan with Sacred Heart University to discourage underage students from entering or remaining on the permit premises at all times, except for those occasions noted in condition #5.
*** They will end up serving the college kids again because they need the money in due time, no? ***
They forgot “Boy Scouts’ Honor.”
What a joke!
Dress Code? What does that mean? The young lady who was raped was dressed like she was looking for it?
If these rules such as dress code, such a security uniforms, such as video surveillance are so important then why doesn’t the state require it across all bars? You need to prove yourself to be irresponsible AND get caught before the state requires this.
What a bunch of bullshit, just a ton of bovine fecal matter. This clown is going to serve well-dressed minors now. That place should have been closed down a long time ago.
What happened to the SHU students? Did they get their “Get out of jail free” card?
And what about the off-duty cops? Anything happen there?
Bob Walsh–I too am wondering the same thing. I don’t recall seeing anything in the news that followed up on those two matters.
Among other measures that should be expected of Sacred Heart is the creation of a policy of the monitoring of area bars frequented by numbers of Sacred Heart students, such that underage drinking and problematic drinking-related behavior involving Sacred Heart students could be discerned and addressed by the university per appropriate university policy. The Lake Forest Block Watch suggested the policy of university security monitoring of Sacred Heart off-campus housing in the North End during a Lake Forest Block Watch-suggested meeting between the City, neighborhood groups, and Sacred Heart that took place several years ago. The policy has continued, albeit at a low/inconsistent level, to the present. The bar monitoring should be integrated with that policy, but at a high, consistent level.
But really, as the university expands and gains power and influence in the region, the problems with underage Sacred Heart student drinking will get worse, as regional economics causes Bridgeport bars to be more and more willing to look the other way in regard to underage drinking, and with Sacred Heart being increasingly able to disregard neighborhood and city concerns regarding Sacred Heart student behavior. Until those in regional/state level politics who are pandering and providing cover for SHU, and those in top executive and board positions at Sacred Heart have to deal with huge lawsuits and public shaming for problems and tragedies caused by preventable/intentional SHU-student behavior, SHU students will be allowed to run amok in neighborhoods and at bars. With Bridgeport’s PD being stressed beyond reasonable limits already, an expanding SHU spells nothing but increasing trouble for Bridgeport. The Golden Star will be back to business as usual before classes resume at SHU in September, with or without a “juice room” available for conservatively dressed, underage students.