Hey, there! Log in / Register

The thick-tongued young lady stood on a floor covered in broken beer glasses

Mary Ann's in Cleveland Circle does not dispute that a 19-year-old BC student got caught with a draft beer in her hand around 12:10 a.m. on Aug. 31.

But was she drunk? The Boston Licensing Board will have to decide that on Thursday when it considers citations issued the bar that morning for both allowing a minor to be in possession of alcohol and serving alcohol to an intoxicated minor.

At a licensing-board hearing this morning, BPD Sgt. Det. Robert Mulvey, who said he walked into a Mary Ann's in complete disarray, its floor liberally coated in the smashed remains of glassware, says there was no question: She had "rather thick-tongued speech" when he talked to her, he said.

Bar attorney David Eisenstadt, however, questioned whether the woman slurred her speech because she was drunk or because she just normally talks like that. After Mulvey acknowledged he had not conducted a field sobriety test or observed other signs of drunkenness, other than a "slight unsteadiness" to her gait, Eisenstadt asked Mulvey how he could be so sure.

Mulvey said he's talked to more than enough drunk young people in his day to tell. Eisenstadt countered he has been involved in hundreds of court cases involving public drunkenness and said there's no way Mulvey's characterization would stand up in court.

Mulvey acknowledged the woman had nothing to do with the smashed glass, but that that likely had something to do with the fact the bar was crowded earlier in the evening with returning BC students.

The bar's manager said what happened was that one counter, on which people would rest their drinks, was, unbenownst to any bar workers, tilted downward just enough so that when people put their drinks on it, they would promptly slide onto the floor.

Mulvey, though, marveled at just how much broken glass there was. "I've never seen such disarray," the licensing veteran said.

Eisenstadt and the board's manager said neither situation should recur: The three people on duty at the bar that night were fired, and the board fixed the slope of the counter.

He added the bar sought a criminal complaint against the woman - only to find out police had already lodged one against her. Mulvey said she's lucky he didn't arrest her at the scene - he said she twice tried to escape him and his questions about how old she really was after she gave him a Massachusetts license that he said obviously showed a different person.


Ad:


Like the job UHub is doing? Consider a contribution. Thanks!

Comments

You're so cute when you're slurring your speech,
But they're closing the bar and they want us to leave.

up
Voting closed 0

You wonder if the weekly staff meeting has a standing item about new, creative excuses for the inevitable next time before the Licensing Committee.

up
Voting closed 0

I don't understand how they still have a license.

up
Voting closed 0

Sloppy speech and sloppy gaits are not necessarily indicative of inebriation. Could very well be a symptom of disability.

up
Voting closed 0

...calling Sorrority membership a disability

up
Voting closed 0

because of my speech -- i am profoundly deaf... so yeah -- I agree.

up
Voting closed 0

I'm sure that all of these cops and authorities were pretty sure of themselves, too, but terribly wrong nonetheless:

http://www.disabilityscoop.com/2011/06/06/man-cp-sues-drunk-driving/13247/

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1169948/Cerebral-palsy-man-barre...

https://books.google.com/books?id=t_zPLB22k80C&pg=PT322&lpg=PT322&dq=cer...

Seems that mistaking cerebral palsy for drunkenness is a "thing" with cops!

up
Voting closed 0

SNL skit series has now been replaced by The Millennials with similar speech patterns and the addition of constant mobile usage.

up
Voting closed 0