By Terrence T. McDonald | The Jersey Journal

HOBOKEN —The number of times police reported to incidents at five Hoboken bars connected to the owners of The Hub accounted for nearly 30 percent of all police-related incidents at bars citywide in the first nine months of the year, according to records obtained by The Jersey Journal.

The records show police visited The Hub, Birch, Mike's Wild Moose Saloon, Texas Arizona and Cadillac Cantina at least 61 times combined between Jan. 1 and Oct. 2, soon after the city shut down The Hub pending an investigation of sexual acts performed there in front of a crowd of clubgoers. The bars sit on three adjacent blocks, steps from the Hoboken PATH station and transit hub.

In the same nine months, 61 other Hoboken establishments with liquor licenses accounted for a total of 172 police-involved incidents, according to figures provided by Hoboken Police Chief Ken Ferrante. Twenty-two others had one reported incident. There are about 130 bars citywide.

The episodes that resulted in police involvement range from intoxicated people doing dumb things — an irate man was kicked out of Texas Arizona after celebrating the new year by tossing beer in the air — to allegations of serious crimes. Officers saw a woman sobbing outside Birch in February. Her friends said she had been sexually assaulted by a man who fled the scene.

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The incidents are documented on tavern sheets, reports that Hoboken police officers must fill out every time they respond to or near a bar. Obtained by The Jersey Journal after a public-records request, they describe an area of the city’s downtown beset with bars playing music too loudly, drunk people falling down stairs and bargoers brawling with bouncers, police officers and one another.

The Hub's owners are in legal trouble over the Sept. 8 incident, caught on videos that went viral. The city hit the nightclub with 15 violations that will be the focus of a hearing Thursday in front of the Hoboken Alcoholic Beverage Control Board.

“The city believes owning a liquor license is a privilege, not a right, and it is fair to expect bar owners to not violate the conditions of the license,” city spokesperson Santiago Melli-Huber said.

Tavern sheets do not necessarily mean a bar’s staff committed wrongdoing. Ferrante said officers send them to the police department’s ABC division, which then investigates each matter to determine if the bar was at fault. If police determine there was wrongdoing on the part of bar workers, the incident is forwarded to the ABC board for review.

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Tavern sheets are created even if a bar worker calls police to, say, report an unruly patron, a policy that rankles bar owners who say it makes them feel like they’ll be penalized for asking the police for help.

About 25 percent of tavern sheets result in serious complaints against a bar, Ferrante said.

Asked to comment, Dian Fini, general manager of Birch, told The Jersey Journal, “As a family with deep roots in public safety, we fully embrace Mayor Bhalla, Chief Ferrante and the Police Department’s focus on ensuring that Hoboken’s bars are a safe place for residents and visitors to enjoy."

"In support of this focus on improving safety, we took several measures in the spring including hiring four additional security personnel on weekends to increase our total to 17 security personnel, sending our employees for additional 'Techniques of Alcohol Management' training by a certified instructor, and purchasing PatronScan ID scanners to verify ID’s and keep a record of all patrons so we can deny entry to those who have been a problem in the past.”

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The business interests of the four bars are intertwined. Fini and her husband, Mario, along with Patrick Cappiello and brothers James and Brian McCue own stakes in The Hub, while the Finis and Cappiello and his wife, Debra, are The Hub’s landlords. The McCues and Peter Belasco own the liquor license for Texas Arizona and James McCue owns the one for Cadillac Cantina. The Finis' Maridian Properties lists the River Street location that houses Texas Arizona and Cadillac Cantina as a Maridian property. The Finis are behind Birch and Wild Moose Saloon, which share the same location and liquor license.

Messages left with James McCue were not returned. Requests for comment from the attorney representing him, his brother and Belasco in a lawsuit against the Finis and Cappiello were not returned.

Between Jan. 1 and Oct. 2, police wrote 24 tavern sheets for the Hub, 17 for Birch and Wild Moose Saloon combined, 12 for Texas Arizona and eight for Cadillac Cantina.

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Incidents at The Hub spiked in 2018, when it received four times the number of tavern sheets than it did in 2017. When the Finis’ Teak on the Hudson was open in the same location in 2016, it was the focus of three tavern sheets.

Included in the five bars’ 61 reports from 2018 are 15 incidents of assault, three reports of criminal sexual contact and at least 11 episodes that required emergency medical technicians.

The tavern sheet for the Sept. 8 Hub incident was written the next day and indicates police did not respond to the incident immediately.

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Dian Fini told The Jersey Journal that in response to problems at Birch, additional security guards were hired, workers received more training and bar employees were given scanners that verify ID cards and keep track of patrons who have been past problems.

“We won’t sweep issues under the rug to avoid tavern sheets,” she said.

Fini added that she and her husband are minority owners in The Hub and had no operational control over it when the Sept. 8 incident occurred.

Hoboken began requiring tavern sheets after a 1990s scandal that saw three people connected to the ABC board implicated in a bribery scandal. One admitted to taking cash for liquor license approvals.

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READ ABOUT THE REPORTED CRIMES, BRAWLS AND JUST PLAIN DUMB ANTICS HAPPENING AT HOBOKEN BARS

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Terrence T. McDonald may be reached at tmcdonald@jjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter @terrencemcd. Find The Jersey Journal on Facebook.