Brawl Lands Post Bar In Trouble With Dearborn

DEARBORN, MI — The Post Bar in Dearborn could have its liquor license revoked as a result of an early Sunday morning brawl and numerous police calls in recent months. City officials are considering the move have already taken action against the Michigan Avenue bar. Two weeks ago, Dearborn’s city council approved a resolution that would force the bar to hire city police officers at its own expense.

On Monday, City Council President Pro Tem Thomas Tafelski asked for the Post’s liquor license to be removed amid numerous complaints about the Sunday brawl. He said police "encountered multiple fights, bottles being thrown and gunfire after 2 a.m.,” according to a report in the Detroit Free Press. In e-mail to the newspaper, he added: “The chaos required response from all available police units plus additional backup from Dearborn Heights.”

Michigan law says that local units of government may request the revocation of a license or permit, after due notice and proper hearing at the local level. Dearborn City Council is working on setting a date for a hearing on The Post Bar. It will likely be in mid-May, according to Dearborn Communications Director Mary Laundroche.

If the city passes a resolution recommending revoking the Post Bar's license, the state Liquor Control Commission will make a final determination. The Post Bar's owners would then have the right to appeal to a state court, Laundroche said.

Tafelski said the incident violates an agreement between Dearborn and the Post Bar’s owners, Moe and Jeannette Charara. The agreement, unanimously approved as a resolution by city council last month, requires the Chararas to pay for city police presence outside the bar, the Free Press reported. But Dearborn City Attorney Debbie Walling said the couple refused to sign the agreement after learning about the cost of having police officers stationed at the bar, the newspaper reported.

Moe Charara thinks Dearborn’s crackdown has more to do with the pending redevelopment of land around the Post Bar than any actual trouble at his establishment. "They've closed down three bars and one hookah lounge like that," he told the Free Press. The city wants his property “so they can let Ford Motor Co. have it for pennies on the dollar — it all comes down to city corruption,” Charara told the newspaper.

In December, the Ford Land Development Co. was in the process of buying aging structures on Michigan Avenue in West Dearborn in the vicinity of the Post Bar, the Free Press reported. The company is planning a $60-million project to build offices that could house about 600 Ford and Ford-supplier employees.

Moe Charara told the Free Press he grew up in Dearborn and wanted to invest in the downtown when he bought the Post Bar building. His wife, Jeannette Charara, owns the bar business and has owned four other bars, he aded.

“She's had no issues anywhere,” Moe Charara told the newspaper. Yet, Jeannette Charara appeared at a hearing of the Michigan Liquor Control Commission in September 2015 and successfully appealed a multiple violation order, agreeing to abide by numerous requirements including one to train bar supervisors not to continue serving patrons who are becoming intoxicated, the Free Press reported.

Meanwhile, Walling is trying to set up another meeting for another nuisance abatement hearing with the Chararas to obtain a signed agreement. Dearborn City Councilman Robert Abraham said the bar’s owners “continue to demonstrate poor judgment and attract customers that behave poorly in our community,” he wrote in an e-mail to the Free Press. “There have been a disproportionate number of incidents that include gunshots, fights and violations of ordinances. I won't sit back and wait for a tragic event.”

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