YOUNGSTOWN — A Mahoning County Common Pleas Court magistrate has ruled that the All City Sports Bar and Grill on the West Side is a nuisance and should remain closed for one year.

Magistrate Tim Welsh issued his ruling Thursday and ordered the owners of the facility at 1692 / 1698 Mahoning Ave., Isiah Poindexter and Brandon Brown, to no longer operate it as a nuisance.

Welsh’s decision approves a request by Youngstown Law Director Jeff Limbian for a permanent injunction that directs the Youngstown Police Department to sell all personal property and contents of the bar that had been used in conducting the nuisance.

The ruling says the one year begins from the “date of the hearing and final disposition” of the case. The hearing was held Oct. 22 and Oct. 23. The city boarded up the bar Aug. 28.

The “findings of fact and conclusions of law” also award costs of boarding up the building, court costs, attorney’s fees and a $300 “tax” on the business to the city.

Welsh’s decision can be appealed to Judge R. Scott Krichbaum, for whom Welsh works, and then to the 7th District Court of Appeals if the owners of the bar are still not satisfied.

TESTIMONY

Welsh’s ruling cited testimony from two Youngstown police officers, who described “numerous complaints of disruptive activity around the premises by neighboring citizens, some of which resulted in officers being dispatched directly to the bar and surrounding area.”

Other complaints were relayed to council persons or Youngstown police Chief Robin Lees, who then passed on the complaints to officers, the ruling stated.

Officer Christopher Staley testified to seeing “large crowds of patrons gathered in front of the bar, not practicing social distancing or obeying mask requirements” from early July to late August 2020, though he also saw similar incidents for at least three months prior to July 2020, Welsh stated.

Officers also testified to numerous parking violations around the business.

“Officers personally witnessed patrons parking on sidewalks, devil strips, within intersections and in driveways,” the ruling states. “Officer Staley testified that while standing across the street from the bar (Aug. 14), an individual literally drove down the sidewalk, parking his vehicle directly behind him. Further investigation and a search of the individual’s vehicle resulted in a felony weapons and drug arrest.”

Something similar happened Aug. 21, when Staley saw someone back up and park his vehicle in the front yard of a nearby residence, Welsh stated. That individual was charged with improper handling of a firearm in a motor vehicle.

Welsh noted that Brown “perhaps unintentionally confirmed the weapons violations being committed by patrons of his establishment upon testifying, “… that’s why guys are leaving their guns and drugs in the car because they know we don’t permit it.”

Officers testified that when they entered the business to investigate COVID-19 complaints, there was a “strong odor of marijuana.”

When officers went to the business to close it down Aug. 28, Staley saw small amounts of marijuana on the surface of the bar and office desk and found a small digital scale. That led to a search warrant and the finding of six, one-pound bags of marijuana in a rear closet, packages of marijuana in plain view in the office, a digital scale and seven packages of marijuana behind the bar, and a marijuana grinder on the office desk.

Poindexter and Brown denied knowledge of the existence of marijuana on the premises, but the magistrate “found the testimony of … Poindexter and Brown in this regard simply not credible, especially in light of Mr. Brown’s daily presence at the business location,” the ruling states. “At a minimum … Poindexter and Brown have acquiesced in such activity and taken no meaningful action whatsoever to halt this activity or abate the nuisance they have maintained.”