ABT director Richard Scully is expected to make a final determination within the next two weeks.
Parrish rejected Sloate's request, recommending instead that Uncle Charlie's liquor license be revoked and Sloate pay a fine of $18,000. A week later, owner Robert Sloate contested the suspension at an administrative hearing.Ĭiting the fact that Sloate rarely attended his own club, and detailing the "flagrant, persistent, repeated, and recurring" violations, which he noted "were such that they would have been noticed by a reasonable diligent licensee," presiding judge Michael M. Scully, suspending Uncle Charlie's liquor license, effectively shutting down the club. On the night of the arrests, officers of the Division of Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco (ABT) brought with them an emergency order, signed by agency director Richard W.
Border Patrol agents didn't come away disappointed - they took into custody two illegal aliens.Īcting on the tip of an anonymous caller, undercover officers had made eighteen half-gram cocaine purchases from Uncle Charlie's patrons between November 15 and December 4. The raid, which resulted in the arrests of three patrons and an Uncle Charlie's bartender, as well as the confiscation of small quantities of cocaine, marijuana, and Quaaludes, capped a six-week investigation of drug activity at the club at 3673 Bird Rd. Border Patrol and the Florida Division of Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco. The invaders were a special team made up of Metro and Miami cops, and agents from the U.S. "Everybody thought they were gay-bashers until they yelled, `It's a raid!'" recalls Bill Brown, who witnessed the events of the wee hours of last December 6. Until about 1:00 a.m., that is, when 30 masked men burst through the door of the bar, wielding clubs. It was members' night at Uncle Charlie's, and everyone was having a pretty good time drinking and dancing to the DJ's mix of Top 40 tunes.