Regal Cinemas has filed an appeal in Boulder County district court, arguing that Longmont Municipal Judge Diana VanDeHey erred when she denied a liquor license to the new theater in November.

Regal filed for a liquor license to serve beer and wine at the Regal Village at the Peaks 12 theater, surveying neighbors in the process about whether they would be OK with the theater serving alcohol. The majority of those surveyed said they weren’t against it.

VanDeHey, after hearing from witnesses called by Regal Cinema attorney Brian Proffitt and a concerned member of the public who was against the sale of alcohol, denied the liquor license.

“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, during a hearing in November. “Certainly the people who are under 21 who come through my court don’t care that they aren’t allowed to drink alcohol. … I’m not comfortable granting the license and I’m going to deny it.”

VanDeHey said she was wary of granting the liquor license because she was not satisfied with the theater’s policy of only ejecting someone who they can prove had violated the law, rather than reporting the violator to the police. She was also skeptical at the amount of supervision Proffitt and other Regal employees said would be present in each auditorium.

In the appeal filed Monday, Proffitt and attorney Chip Schoneberger argued that “Judge VanDeHey’s ruling was arbitrary and capricious and is contrary to Colorado law.”

Longmont Spokesman Rigo Leal said the city wouldn’t be commenting on pending litigation. The Times-Call was unable to reach VanDeHey for comment.

Proffitt attempted to sway VanDeHey during the November hearing to grant the liquor license, acknowledging that licenses for movie theaters are a relatively new consideration for most liquor boards.

There are 12 Regal Cinema theaters in Colorado, two of which have liquor licenses.

If the liquor license had been granted, the theater planned to use a colored wristband system to limit customers over the age of 21 to three alcoholic drinks per day. The employees selling alcohol would be trained to look for signs of inebriation and cut off customers if they think they’d had too much, Regal district manager Tim Campbell said at the November hearing.

Ushers would have walked through each movie auditorium at least twice per movie to check that no one without a wristband was drinking or holding an alcoholic beverage, Campbell said.

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