State Overturns Brew House Alcohol Violation

Braintree's Board of License Commissioners relied on hearsay evidence to find that The Brew House served an intoxicated person last August, according to an appeal decision filed by the state late last month.

The Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission overturned the board's decision and its one-day suspended sentence, ruling that "All of the evidence presented to the Commission constitutes hearsay."

License board members had determined that The Brew House served alcohol to a young woman who was celebrating her birthday with friends and who later ended up drunk and vomiting outside the Granite Street bar.

During the hearing at Town Hall last September, an attorney for the establishment, Thomas J. Cavanaugh, argued that based on police reports, the woman's friends gave conflicting accounts of where and how much she drank on the night of Aug. 17, and no one could say exactly when the group left the bar, or what they may have consumed off-premises.

Chair Joe Powers said at the time that the board did "not have a preponderance of evidence or even sufficient evidence" to find that a violation occurred.

In a decision filed March 27, following a February hearing, the state commission said that while the responding police officers observed the woman "visibly intoxicated" outside The Brew House, there was no direct evidence offered that she was served while intoxicated.

"The Local Board did not produce any percipient witnesses or direct evidence regarding the events that transpired inside the licensed premises," the decision said.

Powers said in a follow-up that the appeal decision is on the board's April 9 meeting agenda. "We will go through it item by item," he said, declining further comment.

Bar co-owner Alex Kesaris said that he is "very satisfied" with the decision.

"If we did something wrong I would take whatever the punishment was," Kesaris said. "We didn't do anything. Obviously this girl was out all day drinking with her friends. We take our jobs seriously."