Downtown Bradenton bar was serving more than drinks, cops say. City declares it a nuisance
Editor’s note: The original version of this story incorrectly attributed certain quotes to Nick Susie, son of bar owner Judith Susie. The quotes should have been attributed to their attorney, Peter Peak. The story has been corrected.
Drinks will no longer flow at the Old Main Bar after 11:30 p.m. for the next several months because, Bradenton police say, drinks aren’t the only thing being regularly sold there.
On three occasions this past summer, undercover police detectives say were able to buy cocaine from dealers inside the bar. At times, police say the bar’s staff helped set up the deals.
On Oct. 10, the Old Main Pub, 313 12th St. W., was officially declared a nuisance by the city’s Nuisance Abatement Board. As a result, the following restrictions were ordered:
- The bar will close at 11:30 p.m. every day.
- The south and east doors to the bar must remain inaccessible from the outside.
- Staff must check the bathrooms every 30 minutes and a log of those checks must be maintained and provided to police on demand.
- Outdoor seating is prohibited.
- A minimum of two security guards must be contracted from a professional security firm.
- Employees will be subject to background checks and drug screening.
As a result of the nuisance finding, the city will have jurisdiction over the bar for one year. But the board said it would reconsider the restrictions placed on the business at their Jan. 9, 2020 meeting.
The bar’s owner, Judith Susie, was present at the meeting with her attorney, Peter Peak, who often spoke on her behalf or had to repeat things to her because she could not hear well. They insisted they had complied with prior restrictions placed on the bar, which had included a closing time of 1:30 a.m.
“Unfortunately, there are people in this community selling drugs. ... We can’t eliminate that but hope we can control that,” Peak said. “But we need suggestions from the police department of how to do that. If there is something that the Bradenton Police Department wants us to do, we will do it if it’s within our power. Unfortunately, drugs are part of our society.”
Susie and her attorney claimed not to know about the involvement of any employees with illegal activities, and that they only learned of the involvement of a former employee after the fact.
“It makes no difference who knew about it, who sold them. The mere fact that narcotics were sold on the premise under the ordinance is good enough,” said Volker Reiss, the city’s community services and code compliance manager.
On July 5, undercover detectives sitting at the Old Main Pub bar asked two bartenders if there was any cocaine available, according to a presentation by Sgt. Anthony Rodriguez. The bartenders pointed them to who in the bar they could buy the cocaine from, according to police. About an hour later were able to buy about 0.7 grams of what tested positive as cocaine.
The next day detectives again were able to set up a drug deal inside the bar, but the drugs were never delivered.
On July 7, detectives spoke with staff at the bar and found out that the “their guy” would be arriving sometime later. Detectives returned just before the dealer arrived. He ultimately sold them two baggies for $60 each, according to Rodriguez. The drugs later tested positive as 1.2 grams of cocaine.
Detectives again returned to the Old Main Pub on Aug. 3. Detectives “observed freely and open usage of drugs,” the sergeant said.
While playing pool with Annuel Meranvil — a former bartender at the Old Main — an undercover detective asked about getting some cocaine.
Meranvil quoted him a price of $60 and then took the money over to Andrew Lee Torres, who then handed him a baggie which Meranvil gave to the detective, according to arrest reports. The detective then made an identical deal on behalf of a second undercover officer.
The drugs later tested positive as cocaine. Meranvil, 31, was arrested that night and charged with sale or delivery of cocaine.
A couple days later Torres, 29, was also arrested on a warrant charging him with sale of cocaine.
Judith Susie insisted that she never thought her former employee had drugs on him. During the nuisance board meeting she also insisted that drugs have never been passed over her bar and that none of her bartenders had knowledge of drug deals.
Police disagreed.
“Some of the employees are working in concert with the drug dealers inside,” Rodriguez said.
Peak insisted that if they knew who the employees were they would be terminated.
That makes little difference, according to a city official.
“We heard a lot of stuff. Very little of that matters. This, this is precisely what the state legislation had in mind when it wrote the statute regarding nuisances because you hear all that time, ‘I had no idea that was going on’, ‘He seemed to be a real nice guy’, ‘He’s a cocaine dealer but he’s a real nice guy, ‘I did everything I could do prevent this’” Reiss said. “The legislature says none of this matters. This is your facility or establishment and you have a responsibility to make sure none of this matters. It’s not the police department or the city’s responsibility. It’s your responsibility.”
The Nuisance Abatement Board was created in 1971 but until recently it had not met in more than a decade, after it was eliminated in the wake of the recession. Since being reinstated, the Old Main Pub is the first case the board has heard.
When the allegations were first brought to the board’s attention, they gave the bar’s owner an opportunity to work out a solution with police.
But police continued to find drugs being sold inside the Old Main Pub.
Judith Susie and her attorney challenged only one of the restrictions imposed by the board, the 11:30 p.m. closing time, saying it would hurt their business. They said the bulk of their business is between 11 p.m. and 1 a.m. each night, but police said that’s when the drug deals were happening.
Judith Susie said she was preparing to list the bar for sale.
“I want it to be a respectable place in the city that even the cops don’t care about. I’m 66 years old. I can’t take no more. I don’t want to look at people like criminals,” Susie said. “If we could just leave as is. Like I said, I have lost thousands of dollars with an hour early. I won’t be able to function with all the added security if I have to close earlier than 1:30 a.m.”
This story was originally published October 25, 2019 at 2:38 PM.
