Appeal of 5-day liquor license suspension will not save Race Week for Marblehead bar

MARBLEHEAD – The owner of Maddie?s Sail Loft hired a lawyer to represent him before the Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission ThursdayBut the five-day suspension of Maddie?s liquor license was scheduled to begin last night whether the appeal was filed or not. The suspension was scheduled to run through Monday. Marblehead Race Week begins this weekend. Maddie?s was still scheduled to serve food.Town Counsel Marc Miller said late Thursday afternoon that the appeal would not affect the suspension, which was approved unanimously by selectmen after a 75-minute hearing Wednesday night.Attorney John Tangusso, Maddie?s owner, said he was disappointed in the board?s decision and “respectfully disagreed” with it.Selectmen gave more weight to a police report in which one of two intoxicated men taken into protective custody July 3 said they drank at Maddie?s after hours, than to affidavits Tangusso presented from both those men and his employees, indicating that they left Maddie?s at closing after drinking only three beers and two and a half cocktails between them.?I don?t think my affidavits were self-serving in any way,” Tangusso said. “The statement of (the man who spoke with police) was very consistent with the report of Officer (Christopher) Gallo. The only divergence came at the end. I?m not questioning the truthfulness of the officer, just the veracity of the impaired person he was speaking to.”One of the two men was an off-duty bartender who was suspended by Tangusso after the incident. Other than that Tangusso said he had no plan to make any changes in the current practices at Maddie?s.?I don?t believe the facts as alleged are what happened,” he said. “If I thought my employees were staying after hours drinking my liquor that?s a violation of the law and theft, and I would not take kindly to either.”?You can?t monitor every staff member?s conduct every hour of the day,” he added. “Mistakes can be made and if they are you terminate (the employee).”Wednesday?s hearing was the third on Maddie?s in the past three months. The first was in April and the board dismissed the complaint. The second hearing was in June and resulted in a two-day suspension of the liquor license. When Tangusso came before the board early this year for his liquor license selectmen warned him about strict controls on overserving.In addition to the appeal, Maddie?s has also been before the ABCC for serving an underage New Hampshire girl who had a fake ID.A bartender at Maddie?s was quoted in a Boston entertainment magazine, saying Maddie?s as serving “the heaviest drinks in town.”Tangusso told selectmen the bartender was misquoted and said a witness substantiates that contention.?I certainly hope this is our last appearance before the selectmen,” he said Thursday. “It?s embarrassing to be up there explaining the conduct of our staff.”