Pittsfield Licensing Board to Review Methuselah Videos
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Two contrasting accounts of a May incident at Methuselah Bar and Lounge exist. The Licensing Board wants to see video footage before making a determination about alleged over-serving.
The panel continued a show cause hearing last week for the bar for the second time, hoping to review security and body camera footage at the next meeting.
"If someone downed eight drinks, I would really like to know how long and what time frame were those eight drinks consumed," board member Dennis Powell said.
Methuselah's attorney William Martin would like to focus on the future and positive changes put forward, admitting "obviously, we know we have a problem" and "obviously, we've got to do a better job."
"Your client does not have a pristine record with this board," Chair Thomas Campoli responded, as the bar has been penalized numerous times.
In 2021, it was slapped with a 30-day liquor license suspension after being cited for COVID-19 violations when video footage of owner Yuki Cohen dancing maskless atop her bar and other violations surfaced. The establishment also faced a two-day suspension that same year and a five-day suspension in 2018.
Cohen was also hit with a $1,000 fine for COVID violations in 2020.
Around midnight on Friday, May 10, police responded to a reported stabbing outside of the bar at 391 North St. During the investigation that night, two separate detectives reported to Hill that Methuselah was overserving patrons after they observed several parties "very intoxicated and unsteady on their feet."
While the stabbing sparked a criminal investigation from the police, the board is concerned about reports of over-serving.
Cohen told The Berkshire Eagle that the injured man was served one drink during his 30-minute visit but he reportedly told the police that he had eight drinks while at the bar. It was also said that he reported having 12 drinks.
"I spoke to a witness outside that was intoxicated. I know him when he's not drinking and he clearly that night had been under the influence and when I spoke to him because he was a witness to the stabbing. He clearly said that he was under the influence. He didn't say whether he was overserved in there but he was inside there," Detective Kim Bertelli-Hunt told the board.
"I spoke to him outside, and then the victim who I spoke to down at the hospital because he was being loaded into the ambulance when I arrived, when I arrived down the hospital probably 15 minutes later, again, I know him when he's not drinking, he was clearly under the influence. He was belligerent. He was yelling at the hospital staff. He was belligerent to me."
The next day, Bertelli-Hunt said she checked in on the stabbing victim who apologized for being belligerent the night before, explaining that he was intoxicated.
"It was just my observation and I reported to my sergeant and here we are," she added.
The board has requested body camera footage of this conversation, which Hill said he could retrieve before the next meeting though it is "not a very easy process."
Cohen originally told the police that her interior cameras did not record and that she had nothing to provide. Last year, surveillance footage from the Tartell Gallery in the rear of the restaurant was shared with the public and analyzed by police after two paintings were stolen from it.
Martin said her camera did not have a server on-site and she has worked with an IT person to retrieve some of the videos. It was given to the police earlier that day.
"Which we think doesn't show any obvious persons who appear to be intoxicated leaving the place," he added.
"And in particular, doesn't seem to show two women, which I think are the primary source of the complaint at this point. The observation in the police report was that there was two women who were appeared to be very intoxicated and stumbling over each other."
Board member Kathy Amuso wasn't pleased that they were given two months to obtain documentation and provided police with video footage on the day of the hearing. This was attributed to a "struggle" in getting their hands on it.
"It just bothers me that here we are, two months later, and you're just giving them documentation when that was a problem in June that we wanted you to have documentation," Amuso said.
"But if we go back at least on the time since I've been on the licensing board, Yuki, there was a time that you agreed before that you would get video and then we really didn't have it."
Martin said the plan going forward has a couple of different components to it, citing increased drug activity in the downtown corridor and outlining steps Cohen is willing to take in response. These include storage of security footage for 30 days, collaboration with police, and a security guard by the bathrooms to make sure only one person enters at a time.
"As we continue to have problems in downtown Pittsfield, I think we, and Yuki in particular, recognize that she needs to up her game in response to the problems that we seem to be having. More problems seem to be coming our way," he added.
Bartender Joshua Williams believes the stabbing victim was served one drink. He said alcohol takes time to set in and if someone stumbled into the bar, he would not give them a drink.
"Also if someone else that I don't observe gives them a drink as well, that's two drinks," he added.
"And I didn't give them another one after that but it could take 30 minutes or so for that to set in and if then that hits them and they stumble out of the bar, I believe that I still did my due diligence because they did not show that behavior when I was giving them the drink."
Martin said it is hard to imagine that the victim had eight or 12 drinks in the estimated time that he was at Methuselah.
"Originally, we were asking our witnesses to focus on that person. Now, the question has sort of migrated to 'did you observe anybody, women in particular who appeared to be stumbling?' and the answer has been 'No, we didn't observe anybody in the bar who appeared to be stumbling,'" he said, adding that people carry around pills that have "immediate consequences" that could affect their condition.
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