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August 30, 2006

Licensing board drops complaint against Sidebar tavern

PROVIDENCE --For want of some records, a case was lost today at the Board of Licenses.

The board threw out a police complaint against Sidebar & Grille, a downtown tavern owned by lawyer Artin H. Coloian, former chief of staff for imprisoned former Mayor Vincent A. Cianci Jr.

City officials failed to produce records of cellphone calls and transcripts of traffic on police radios that the board subpoenaed at Coloian’s request. That failure, board members said, gave them no choice but to dismiss the allegations of overcrowding, unruliness and serving of underage patrons.

Coloian needed the records to defend himself, said Chairman Andrew A. Annaldo and Vice Chairman Gordon Fox.

In a related matter, Johnson & Wales University asked the board not to let Sidebar & Grille host a fundraising party overnight Sunday, lasting until 4 a.m. Monday, on a parking lot outside the tavern. The noise, disruption and associated likely misbehavior would disturb freshman students, who are scheduled to arrive on campus this weekend, and their parents, contended Irving Schneider, president of the Providence campus.

The board delayed a decision until Friday.

-- Journal staff writer Gregory Smith

Posted by Andrea Panciera  at 5:25 PM | Permalink

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