The Sandwich Broadsider reports that the Board of Selectmen has voted 5-0 to revoke the liquor license held by Booster Bar & Grill in Forestdale.
Selectmen later said it was a “difficult case” to consider because much of the testimony in the license hearing did not add up, and that 17 people will lose their jobs, barring a reversal of their decision via an anticipated appeal to the Massachusetts Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission.
The board found the Route 130 sports bar and restaurant served Jodie Zanello, 26, an intoxicated customer; who then left the establishment, headed north on Route 130 bound for Boston and crashed her Jeep in Dennis after a wrong-way trip.
The Broadsider reports that the hearing featured conflicting testimony at nearly every turn. In the end, however, Selectmen Chairman Frank Pannorfi said he found Zanello’s testimony about being served at the Booster bar “credible.”
Selectman James Pierce agreed. “I have no doubt she was there and that she had that fourth glass of wine that she testified to.”
Zanello, a 26-year-old waitress employed locally, said she was intoxicated when she left Booster shortly after 7 p.m. on Jan. 14. She said she drank four glasses of wine, the fourth being placed in front of her by the bartender, bought by another bar customer.
Bartender Rebecca Holt told selectmen she did not recall seeing the woman or serving her any wine.
Booster attorney Robert Mills produced the computerized shift report for the afternoon in question that showed only two glasses of wine being served during her time behind the bar on a slow business afternoon and early evening.
Testimony revealed that the customer and the bartender were acquainted.
“I was there,” Zanello told selectmen.
“I didn’t see her,” Holt later countered. “She could have been there, but I can’t recall seeing her there at that time and date.”
Testimony also showed that Booster owner Stefanie Celata never gave Sandwich police Sgt. Joseph Cotter the shift report of items served or the cash register tape from the afternoon in question.
Celata, however, said she gave police everything the sergeant requested; notably credit card receipts and checks, but not the computerized shift report for the afternoon or for the evening bartender’s time on duty.
Selectmen pressed the point whether such service reports could be altered by a bartender on duty or later by the owner.
Celata in her testimony doubted Zanello was in her establishment and seemed to intimate that the woman may have consumed wine elsewhere prior to the accident.
