District attorney shuts down pub in Plymouth

PLYMOUTH – In a highly visible show of force, prosecutors padlocked the doors at Olde Tymers Pub Friday afternoon, a move the manager says is racially motivated.

“You don’t see them closing any white bars down, do you?” Neil McMahon said while overlooking Luzerne County detectives installing padlocks on the tavern’s doors.

With the roar of drills behind her, District Attorney Jacqueline Musto Carroll stood near the entrance to explain the reasons why the tavern, formerly known as Bull Run Tavern, was temporarily closed.

“We had a homicide here, we had robberies, we had rapes, we had assaults, we also had people urinate outside, sex acts going on outside,” Musto Carroll said. “Right across the street, we have an elderly high rise. Those people and the people in this community have had enough.”

Prosecutors served McMahon with a 27-page court order that temporarily closed the tavern. It prevents McMahon from operating the bar until a judge decides if the tavern should be permanently closed as a nuisance bar.

Most of the court order lists citations from the state police Bureau of Liquor Control Enforcement and police investigations at the tavern dating back to January 2006.

The most serious was a deadly shooting inside on Sept. 20 when Jeremy Hendricks, 27, allegedly fired several rounds from a revolver, killing Kirk Lipscomb, 26, and injuring David Green. Hendricks is facing a criminal homicide trial in county court.

“We had one shooting and it had nothing to do with me,” McMahon said, adding that most of his life was growing up in the bar business. “In 50 years, there was one shooting that I had no control.”

McMahon said he was “shocked” but not surprised when he learned his tavern, owned by the Estate of Gerald W. Martindale, was being padlocked. McMahon is the executor and has power of attorney of the estate, prosecutors said.

Police Chief Myles Collins said police were frequently called to the tavern on any given night.

Mark Fox, who lives nearby on Main Street, said he was glad the tavern was closed.

“I’m happy," Fox said outside the Main Street Diner, two storefronts away from the tavern. "It’s been a nuisance for years."

Other patrons walking in and out of the diner said they were excited that the tavern was closed.

“There have been complaints. I believe there were more than 100 complaints over the last few years,” Musto Carroll said. “The Liquor Control Enforcement cited the owner many, many times. We have enough evidence to go forward.”

McMahon said police have not been called to his tavern in more than a year, which was disputed by Collins and Musto Carroll.

“The owner had a chance to clean this up and to straighten things out, and he hasn’t,” Musto Carroll said. “That’s why we’re going to straighten it out for him. We were told there was going to be security. There is no security. And things have not changed. It has not been a good place for this neighborhood.”

McMahon said the closure of his tavern is racially motivated because most of his clientele are minorities.

“I serve colored people; I’m the only bar in Plymouth that serves colored people,” McMahon said. “This is definitely a racially motivated situation. If I didn’t serve black people, you wouldn’t be here. The cops have not been here in a year for anything.