Club owner Allen Whittle says authorities targeted Bogey's after he fought charges from a 2006 sting and protested undercover cops' conduct in making the bust.
Whittle and his partner, Mark Livingston, have given the city of Clearfield, Utah liquor-control officials and state investigators a 60-day notice that they will be filing a lawsuit in February, a requirement for civil-rights litigation.
Whittle says his troubles began in late 2006 when he told liquor-control attorneys he would fight a citation of serving alcohol to an intoxicated customer because he had a surveillance tape that refuted the account of the undercover officers.
State liquor-control officials refused to dismiss the citation, saying the tapes had been altered. That assertion was rejected in August by an administrative hearing officer, who said the tapes had gaps but were not altered.
Early in 2007, shortly after Whittle had turned over the tapes to the Utah Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control, an officer from the State Bureau of Investigations asked Clearfield detectives for a report showing the number of police calls to Bogey's during the past year.
"I didn't know why they wanted the report," said Clearfield Police Chief Jim Schilling. "I just complied with their request."
Schilling said he handed the report in March to state investigators Stan Olsen and Kyle Bushnell, showing more than 200 calls involving disorderly conduct, assault, drunk driving, lewdness and noise complaints.
A month later, the investigators informed Schilling that state law allowed the city to protest when Bogey's reapplied for its liquor license on June 30, as long as the club had a number of nuisance convictions lodged against it.
The interpretation of the statute was provided by the state's chief compliance officer, Earl Dorius, who had met with club owners on the "over-serving" alcohol charge months earlier. Dorius said he often answers questions from state agencies, but he does not recall anyone making inquiries about Bogey's.
On April 10, Schilling explained the nuisance statute to the Clearfield City Commission during a meeting closed to the public. Bogey's sued and in December a 2nd District judge ordered the city to release tapes of the meeting.
In the meeting, Schilling said investigators told him the state "would be interested" in applying the nuisance law when club owners appeared before the liquor control commission to renew their license. Schilling also quoted the investigators as saying "there would be more 'umph' to it if a city backed the objection to the commission."
Clearfield officials did not object when Bogey's license came up for renewal last year, and City Manager Chris Hillman said there are no plans to protest the club's liquor license when it expires again in June. But in July 2006, officials did change six city noise violations against Bogey's to state nuisance misdemeanors - requisites for the city to withdraw local approval for the club's state liquor license.
Clearfield City Attorney Brian Brower said the change was made by the Davis County Attorney's Office, not the city. He also said city officials have long been concerned by residents complaints of noise coming from Bogey's.
Club attorney Robert Neeley said neither the city ordinance nor the state statute specifically address noise problems. If the city wants to eliminate noise, officials should pass an ordinance outlining decibel levels, audible limits from buildings and time parameters "but the Clearfield ordinance has none of these details," he said. "There's more going on here than noise."
