Michigan

The Facts

According to testimony provided during a Dec. 23 hearing before Administrative Law Judge Michael St. Johns, the agent from the Michigan Liquor Control Commission stopped at the bar on Dec. 3.

Video of the agent’s visit showed the investigator leaving his vehicle, entering the bar and saddling up the bar. A woman with a young child strapped to her chest and no mask on, approached the investigator and provided him a menu.

The video revealed that eight adults were unmasked, eating food and being served alcohol in violation of the state’s pandemic emergency orders from Michigan Department of Health and Human Services Director Robert Gordon. Those orders prohibit indoor dining and alcohol service in an effort to stop the spread of COVID-19.

LCC spokesperson Jeannie Vogel denied that the investigator misled staff at the bar.

“The accusations are false that the investigator posed as a poor, hungry, person in need,” she wrote in an email.

The suspension order was served on Dec. 14. The investigator, accompanied by a Potterville Police Department officer, taped the suspension order — a large bright orange sign — on the door and then entered.

When the investigator explained why he was there, John Devine, the manager, became angry and began to berate the investigator as a “communist motherf—er” and a “traitor.” Devine also accused the investigator of dishonoring those who had served in the military.

The incident was caught on the body camera video released by the Potterville Police Department.

St. Johns called the outburst, which was played during the hearing, “extremely disturbing and disappointing.” He later called Devine’s behavior “reprehensible.”

Charlie Devine, John’s brother and the owner of Charlie’s Bar and Grill, admitted the violations contained in the LCC summary suspension on Dec. 23. St. Johns ordered a 30-day license suspension and a $600 fine. John Devine also was ordered to produce a written apology to the inspector he verbally abused.

“This temper tantrum on the part of the GM resulted in a full $600 fine and an extension of the suspension in this case,” the order signed by St. Johns reads.

As far as the allegations of the inspector dishonoring those who had served in the military, St. Johns asked if the investigator served, and a deputy attorney general representing the MLCC said he had. St. Johns then asked if John had served and was told no by Charlie Devine...

https://www.michiganadvance.com/2021/01/05/a-gop-senator-told-a-heart-wrenching-story-about-a-hometown-bar-hurt-by-covid-19-orders-but-almost-none-of-it-was-true/