Posted on: Friday, July 27, 2001

Hostess bar owners fined $31,500 by city Liquor Commission

By Curtis Lum
Advertiser Staff Writer

A Kaka'ako hostess bar was slapped with a $31,500 fine yesterday, the largest single fine ever handed down by the Honolulu Liquor Commission.

But Club Yokohama was spared the harshest punishment available to the commission, which would have been the revocation of its liquor license.

The fine was levied after Club Yokohama attorney William Harrison pleaded no contest on behalf of his client to 27 liquor law violations.

The charges ranged from minor timecard violations to more serious allegations of customers and employees being fondled. The charges resulted from a police undercover investigation at the bar Sept. 6, 2000.

While not admitting guilt, Harrison said his client, K&J Ventures Inc., has agreed to take responsibility for the actions of a few employees. He said the four employees no longer work at the club.

Harrison said his client was aware that the commission has come down hard on violators and recently revoked the license of Golden Dolls Showgirls on Ke'eaumoku Street after it was found guilty of 14 violations.

"This commission has gotten their attention previously by its actions with other clubs that had violated the law," Harrison said. "They have done everything in their power to clean up any kind of problem that they had. They recognize that if they come back before this commission again with further violations, that they're subject to revocation."

Commission chairman John Spierling said he hopes the large fine sends a message to club owners who think they can scoff at liquor laws.

Spierling warned Harrison that should Club Yokohama appear before the commission again, the panel would not hesitate to revoke the liquor license.

Harrison said after the hearing that if his client had contested the charges and been found guilty that it would have lost its license.

"(Pleading not guilty) shows that they're not taking responsibility for what happened there. In that situation there was a high likelihood that they would move to suspend or revoke," Harrison said. "They just revoked the Golden Dolls license and my client was not very hopeful of pursing the litigated hearing."