Selectmen Hit Horse ‘N Carriage With $2,000 Donation Over Liquor Violation

Selectmen have ordered Horse ‘N Carriage to give a $2,000 donation to the town’s Drug Abuse Resistance Education program after a bartender at the restaurant served a beer to an underage man in late December. It’s the restaurant’s second violation during the last eight years. In 2001 selectmen fined the restaurant $500. Horse ‘N Carriage is planning to close Monday, March 29 so the whole staff can be re-trained about how to avoid serving alcohol to minors. Selectmen discussed the violation for about a half-hour this past Monday night with the restaurant’s owner. Kevin O’Boy, and O’Boy’s lawyer. Liquor violation discussions in some towns sometimes get testy because a lot of money is on the line — selectmen as the licensing authority have the ability to revoke a li­quor license or impose lesser sanctions such as a fine or mandatory closure for a period of time. But the tenor of the conversation Monday night was cordial, as selectmen acknowledged that Horse ‘N Car­riage has caused the town almost no problems since O’Boy opened it at 210 Dedham Street (Route 1A) in 1983. O’Boy also noted that he has given to local charities in the past. But selectmen were intent on making sure that the penalty sends a message, especially given recent experi­ence with underage drinking. In October 2008 a 17-year-old Plainville girl, Taylor Meyer, died after wandering off into swampy woods after a late-night underage drinking party near the former Norfolk Airport. “At least from my perspective it has a heightened level of sensitivity because of the incidents that we’ve had. … I do think that there has to be a message, a very strong message, sent that underage drinking just cannot be tol­erated, especially with the great misfortune that we’ve ex­perienced here in Norfolk recently,” Lehan said.

Six weeks ago, on Tuesday, December 29, Norfolk Po­lice Detective Nate Fletcher sent a 19-year-old man into all alcohol-serving businesses in Norfolk to order alcohol. If the man was asked for an ID, he simply left, Fletcher said.

At the Horse ‘N Carriage the man ordered a Sam Ad­ams on draft. The bartender served him, and then the man walked away, Fletcher said.

Horse ‘N Carriage was the only liquor-license-holding business in Norfolk that served the man during the sting, Fletcher said. The Norfolk Police Department typically conducts compliance checks twice a year, once between Memorial Day and the Fourth of July and once between Thanksgiv­ing and New Year’s Eve, Norfolk Police Chief Charles H. Stone Jr. told selectmen. O’Boy’s lawyer, Robert Allen, of Brookline, didn’t dispute the police version of events, admitting that his bartender, a man in his 60s who has worked there for 24 years, served the underage man. “Not his typical m.o. They do card people on a regular basis,” Allen said.

During the discussion with O’Boy and his lawyer, se­lectmen initially discussed the possibility of requiring O’Boy to donate to charity the equivalent of the alcohol profitsfrom two Saturday nights.

A typical Saturday night at Horse ‘N Carriage brings in about $2,000 in gross sales of alcohol, O’Boy said, of which about 35 percent goes to expenses not including overhead.

Two Saturday nights at that rate would have amount­ed to $2,600 — though O’Boy noted that his actual profit may be lower than that.

Selectmen decided instead to set a specific figure. Le­han suggested DARE as the beneficiary. “You have been a very good partner to Norfolk, and we appreciate that, and we don’t want to discourage your good partnership in any way, but we do want the message clearly sent that as innocent as it may be, and I know that it very well probably was, we need a message to be firm. We can’t have this,” Lehan said. Selectman Rob Garrity suggested the $500 fine from 2001 was too low. O’Boy’s lawyer suggested $2,000 would be too much and looked for another way. “Two thousand dollars based on what he would walk away with is steeper than he anticipated, and perhaps the 500 is low, as you suggest, but the two thousand seems high,” the lawyer said.

O’Boy said it was the concept of a finethat bothers him more than the amount, especially considering that Horse ‘N Carriage has a good record. His lawyer noted that Horse ‘N Carriage tends to cater to an older set and that it doesn’t stay open as late as its liquor license allows.

“As much as I’m taking full responsibility for the vio­lation, we need to get some credit as well,” O’Boy said. “When you’re part of the community for as long as we’ve been, and there’s been zero issues with any other type of violation since we’ve been there, there needs to be some credit given to the organization, to my staff, to the people that are part of the fabric of your community. So I guess that having it be a fineor a donation, I guess it’s the word­ing that kind of hits me a little bit. I don’t know if you follow what I’m saying. It doesn’t seem like you get much credit for all the years of doing a good job. And I guess you don’t. The license is certainly a privilege, and we take it as such, but again, we’ve done a good job. I mean, not perfect, but I’ve got to say that better than 99 percent of establishments in all the areas.”

“I wouldn’t disagree with you, but in the same vein it is a violation, and we can’t disguise it to be anything other than what it is,” Lehan responded. “You have been a good citizen, your establishment is well-run as best we know, and you’ve certainly been a good partner, as I’ve said sev­eral

times now to the community. But it is still a violation. Underage drinking, and I’m speaking for me, right now is an area of sensitivity in this community. Call it a function of bad timing.”

Allen, O’Boy’s lawyer, suggested selectmen could avoid a fine altogether by issuing a sentence and then staying it.

“Something that I have seen quite often is a suspen­sion that is held in abeyance for a certain period of time. So perhaps it’s a two-day closure for a year, and if noth­ing happens within that year, then it would essentially go away. It’s a suspended sentence, so to speak,” Allen said. But O’Boy interjected to say that the $2,000 amount doesn’t bother him if it’s going to the local DARE pro­gram “Mr. Chairman, I’ll gladly pay the two thousand. … It’s going to a cause. I think that the penalty as a fine kind of bothers me. Making it a donation to the DARE program, I’m good with that. I know the money’s going to that cause. … I think it’s steeper than I deserve. But where the community has struggled in this area, for me to step up, I’m good with that,” O’Boy said.

“… If that’s where the money’s going … and knowing that the money is going to be used to educate. … Let’s get to the kids, to educate them. Because the underage drink­ing problem isn’t at the Horse ‘N Carriage. And if I can help assist with the education of kids, to help them un­derstand the dangers of alcohol, and if that two thousand dollars goes to a good effort, so be it, let’s use the money in good form,” O’Boy said. Before selectmen voted on the penalty, Lehan noted that the violation will be recorded as a second offense. “It’s a second offense but … do you ever get time for good behavior? I’ve had a second offense in 28 years,” O’Boy said. “… I just think that in any organization, whether it’s my license or someone else’s, over a period of time, things, they may happen, but there has to be some­where along the line where certain things get erased, and you get a clean slate somewhere along the line.” Lehan said it’s a good point, and that the other two selectmen, Rob Garrity and Jim Tomaszewski, are plan­ning to reexamine Board ofSelectmen policies, including that one.