Longmont Municipal Judge Diana VanDeHey on Friday denied Regal Cinemas a license to sell beer and wine at its new theater at Village at the Peaks, saying she was uncomfortable with approving the tavern liquor license application.

“As the liquor licensing authority since 1998, I know people ignore the signs and ignore the rules,” said VanDeHey, who is the sole member of the licensing authority. “Certainly the people who are under 21 who come through my court don’t care that they are not allowed to drink alcohol. … I’m not comfortable granting the license and I’m going to deny it.”

Brian C. Proffitt, a partner with Foster Graham Milstein & Calisher LLP who represented Regal Cinemas at the hearing, said that Regal could appeal VanDeHey’s decision in district court. Immediately after the hearing, Proffitt said he needed to consult with his clients on whether they would appeal the decision.

The hearing lasted more than an hour and a half, with Proffitt, VanDeHey and the city’s attorney, Rodrigo Rangel, querying Regal district manager Tim Campbell about theater operations.

Campbell testified that he oversees 27 of Regal’s cinemas, 12 of which are in Colorado. Of those 12, two currently have liquor licenses and four others are in the process of applying for licenses.

Proffitt confirmed with Campbell that while movie theaters applying for liquor licenses is a relatively new practice, it’s a business strategy to lure customers away from increasingly more immersive home entertainment options.

Campbell said that if the Longmont theater’s application was approved, alcohol would be served in special plastic cups from 10 a.m. to 11 p.m., but not to patrons of movies with run-times set to go past 2 a.m. In those cases, the theater would have people posted at the door to the auditorium, making sure people with alcohol didn’t enter. State law requires that liquor not be served past 2 a.m.

The theater would have used a colored wristband system to limit customers over the age of 21 to three alcoholic drinks per day. The colors of the wristbands for each day would have been randomly chosen, Campbell said.

Every single customer ordering an alcoholic drink (domestic and local craft beers from cans and bottles or wine dispensed from a machine) would have been asked for a Colorado identification. The cashiers serving alcohol would have to be supervised by a manager over the age of 21. All of the employees serving alcohol would be trained to look for signs of inebriation and cut off customers if they think they’d had too much, Campbell said.

Ushers would have walked through each auditorium at least twice per movie showing, checking to make sure no one without a wristband was drinking from or holding one of the specially marked cups for alcohol. If an usher caught a minor with alcohol or someone giving alcohol to a minor, they are trained to get a manager and the manager would ask them to leave, Campbell said.

Both VanDeHey and Rangel, who noted that he has previously worked as an usher for a sports stadium, asked several questions about the security of people drinking in the auditoriums.

“I’m a mother and I have my teenage daughter with me at the movie, and I’ve gotten a beer and put it in my cupholder, what’s to stop her from drinking the beer?” VanDeHey asked Campbell as a hypothetical.

“Nothing,” Campbell said, after a slight pause.

“So if I’m caught giving alcohol to a minor, I walk away and can come back maybe another time?” Rangel asked Campbell. “You’ve caught me and I leave and come back the next day, but there’s no police report?”

Campbell replied that that was correct.

Proffitt also called local resident Nicholas Parry to the stand as a witness. Parry is the regional manager for Parry’s Pizza and Bar, which is set to open directly across from the theater.

Parry testified that as a local resident and business owner, he would like the theater to be able to serve alcohol and that he usually drives to watch movies at another Regal theater precisely because they serve alcohol.

One member of the public, Doris Ogden, 78, queried Campbell and testified against approving the license.

“I believe it’s a whole family event to go to the theater, it’s a single event too, but to have children exposed to people drinking — when you drink your personality changes, generally people are louder and their voice carries,” Ogden told the Times-Call, separate from her testimony, adding that she occasionally enjoys a drink. “Alcohol leads to the downfall of men in our society; just read the paper.”

Ogden was allowed to testify because she lives within an area bounded by Third Avenue, Plateau Road, Bowen Street and 89th Street, the area considered to have been affected by the decision. As one of two opponents who appeared in the municipal courtroom at the Longmont Safety & Justice Center, Ogden told VanDeHey that she didn’t want children and teenagers around adults who are drinking at the theater.

Proffitt argued that children are present at restaurants and sporting events when alcohol is served. Additionally, he presented evidence from the neighborhood petition, that showed out of 168 eligible signatures from nearby residents and business owners, only three opposed approving the theater’s liquor license application.

In her decision, VanDeHey cited the theater’s policy of only asking someone who’s violating the law to leave rather than taking their name or calling the police. Plus she was skeptical about the amount of supervision available in a movie theater, despite Proffitt’s efforts to convince her that the light from the screen allows ushers to see theater patrons clearly in a darkened movie auditorium.

If someone is caught violating the law “they are just asked to leave and not to get to finish their drink,” VanDeHey said. “And I know alcohol is served at athletic events, but it’s usually served in plain daylight and ushers are around and it’s easy to watch people in the daytime.”

Karen Antonacci: 303-684-5226, antonaccik@times-call.com or twitter.com/ktonacci