Operation Prevent took its first casualty in its war on underage drinking April 28, when the New York State Liquor Authority closed Konrad’s Sports Bar by an emergency order.

The bar’s final business night ended in a chaotic riot after five to six police officers and a liquor authority inspector arrived at about 9:45 p.m. to serve suspension papers to the bar’s owner and found a senior celebration in progress.

Around 50 patrons were caught in the raid, including the group of seniors, dressed in costumes similar to those of a Halloween party. By the time the police left, Syracuse University senior Meghan Haines was arrested on charges of resisting arrest and possession of another’s license, and S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications senior Erin Colton and College of Visual and Performing Arts senior Amanda Deacon were charged with obstruction of governmental administration.

‘It turned from being very calm to extremely upset, and an uproar happened,’ said Ashley Meade, a senior who was in the bar at the time. ‘People were upset, obviously, because officers were coming into the bar. It turned extremely chaotic.’

Action against the bar began last week, said John Cadorette, the owner of Konrad’s, when he attended an administrative hearing held by the liquor authority in Albany to answer the charges against the bar.

Cadorette said the hearing board’s decision was deferred until June, but the liquor authority moved on April 28 to close the bar by Emergency Summary Order of Suspension, citing charges accumulated during raids on Feb. 8, 2003, Aug. 30, 2003, April 1, 2004, and from an alleged assault in the bar in January 2003.

‘They basically went behind the judges’ back,’ Cadorette said. ‘They have autonomy to do what they want, if they want. It’s a losing battle.’

The liquor authority claimed that it was ‘imperative that emergency action be taken against the immediate and continuing danger resulting from the licensee’s failure to adequately supervise the conduct of the licensed premises,’ according to the summary order.

Mark Anderson, spokesman for the liquor authority, said the liquor authority would not make further comment on the case until it was resolved.

Members of the Syracuse Police and a liquor authority investigator met at about 8:45 p.m. that Friday to serve Konrad’s an Emergency Summary Order of Suspension and close the bar, but found it closed, said Lt. Shannon Trice.

Around 9:45 p.m., the investigator returned to the area after the bar had opened, Trice said. After a call from the investigator, the police returned.

‘Upon arrival, I secured the front door to the establishment and we intended to have the patrons file out of the bar in an orderly fashion as to check their identification,’ wrote Officer Thomas Murfitt in a police report. ‘The attitude of the patrons was, because they were of drinking age, they could do as they pleased.’

Trice stopped Haines upon entering the bar, asking her for identification, according to a police report. She produced a New Jersey license belonging to another senior, identifying herself as ‘Courtney,’ according to the police report.

‘I requested additional identification from her. Haines opened the wallet further and I could see another driver’s license from a different state,’ Trice wrote in a police report. ‘At this point, I took the wallet from Haines and instructed her to move to another location in the bar and out of the doorway.’

Trice said he found five IDs in Haines’ possession, including one that belonged to another person at the bar and three that did not. Possession of another’s license is a crime under New York state law.

Haines refused to comply, Trice said, because she claimed she was over 21 years of age. After Trice asked her to sit down and Haines refused again, he then forced her to sit at a table in the corner of the bar, he said.

‘At this time, other girls in the bar started surrounding me. The girls were pushing and grabbing me,’ Trice wrote. ‘The girls were already intoxicated, too intoxicated to be served.’

Trice began to handcuff Haines, and the situation escalated, he said, when Colton came to her defense. With assistance from another officer, the two students were handcuffed and placed in a car outside and Trice began to interview them.

‘As I did this, an Amanda Deacon opened my driver’s side door and tried to yank me out of the police car,’ Trice wrote.

Murfitt wrote that he saw seven to nine girls surrounding the vehicle in which Trice was conducting the interviews and that he came to his assistance once Deacon opened the door.

‘The females were all yelling and causing chaos,’ he wrote.

Deacon was arrested as well, and the trio was transported to the County Justice Center, where they were photographed and examined, according to the reports.

Haines declined to comment on the situation. Colton and Deacon did not return phone calls. Meade said that after consulting their lawyers, they decided not to comment.

The conduct of the police was criticized by some present during the raid, but Trice defended the actions of his officers and himself.

‘She gave physical resistance, and that physical resistance was met with forcing her hands behind her back. She wasn’t hurt; she wasn’t injured,’ Trice said. ‘If they don’t comply, you have to force their hands behind their back. It doesn’t get much simpler than that.’

Trice added that the students were examined and photographed upon arriving at the Justice Center and that none were injured.

Nicole Wall, a senior magazine major, was in the basement of the bar celebrating a birthday party when the raid began.

‘(The police) were doing their job, that’s what it looked like to me. If people don’t comply, they’re obviously going to raise their voices,’ Wall said. ‘When they were taking the girls out, they did seem like they were using force, but I also saw girls screaming at the cops and swearing in their faces.’

Cadorette was disappointed his business was closed and angered at the conduct of the police.

‘There was no reason to bring in five, six cops,’ Cadorette said. ‘Students are tired of getting trapped in a bar when they’re 21. You can only push people around for so long.’

Cadorette added that the bar had increased its attention to preventing underage drinking in the past year, and he was frustrated with what he considered a targeted attack on his business.

‘I have no problem being raided, but why are you fucking me?’ Cadorette said. ‘You can come in every night if it gets underage people out of there.’

Trice said that Konrad’s was not targeted specifically but that its reputation and consistently high numbers of underage patrons during previous raids made it an obvious choice.

‘I would say that it wasn’t necessarily targeted, but that’s where all the underage drinkers are,’ Trice said. ‘We’re not going to raid there once and have a gold mine, and come back and have another gold mine. We’re going to keep going back until the problem’s gone.’

Trice said that the bar’s closing was not an objective of Operation Prevent, but was considered a success.

‘It’ll be one less bar available to drink at,’ Trice said. ‘It’s stimulated a lot of discourse and gotten a lot of people talking and thinking.’

Operation Prevent will continue, despite the pending depletion of the original $18,500 grant. Trice said that another $4,000 had been secured for the program.

No plans are yet announced for the location at 113 Marshall St., but history suggests the location is destined to host a bar.

‘I definitely think you can run a bar business there,’ Trice said. ‘As long as you’re following the law, you’re not going to be bothered.’

Published on June 3, 2004 at 12:00 pm