Warren bar owner pleads innocent to charges

WARREN — A 35-year-old bar owner who has had past run-ins with police pleaded innocent Monday to two counts of operating an illegal liquor establishment.

Lashawn Ziegler, who gave his address as his Benji Brown’s Bar and Grill on North Park Avenue, also pleaded innocent in municipal court to unlawful storage of alcohol. A pretrial hearing was scheduled for June 6 before Judge Thomas Gysegem.

Two women who work at the nightspot also are charged.

Ziegler’s sister, Stephanie Ziegler, 40, pleaded innocent to operating without a permit and disorderly conduct. Latisha Campbell, 30, pleaded innocent to operating without a permit. Both gave the bar as their addresses, and they also will be at a court hearing June 6.

Ziegler said Monday he has operated the bar as a bottle club since October because his permit has been in escrow due to previous problems with the city.

He made money at Benji’s, he explained, with a door charge and selling food and soft-drink setups. Ziegler said he had liquor stored in the bar but wasn’t selling it, noting he didn’t know it was against the law to store it. State agents found several hundred bottles of beer, liquor and a keg of beer.

Ziegler is former owner of 77 Soul on Youngstown Road, which was closed by the city in 2004 because it didn’t have a sprinkler system or firewalls. Police said the bar also was the scene of many police calls ranging from gunfire and stabbings to parking violations.