Reggie’s Bar in Tigerland has lost its liquor license after the death of LSU student Madison Brooks.
One of Reggie’s owners, Darin Adams, who was responsible for the day-to-day operations of the business, will be permanently barred from an alcohol and tobacco license in Louisiana.
Reggie’s must also pay a $15,000 fine in the next 90 days.
Sheriff’s deputies say Brooks, 19, was drinking at Reggie’s in January before leaving with three men and a 17-year-old, two of whom allegedly raped her in the backseat of a car before leaving her near a subdivision, where she was struck by a vehicle and left with fatal injuries.
Members of Brooks’ family, all wearing pink, watched in the audience as the Alcohol Tobacco Control commissioner announced the decision.
Reggie’s faced a high penalty “given the history of the location and the severity of this particular incident,” ATC Commissioner Ernest P. Legier Jr. said.
The Thursday ruling by the ATC board shutters an establishment marked by a controversial history of danger and racism. For years, Black students said the bar applied its dress code in a racist manner.
And the closing of the bar may be a step toward the resolution called for by LSU President William F. Tate IV, who pointed to bars serving underaged students in the aftermath of the rape arrests in Brooks’ case.
“All but one of the suspects involved in this horrific scenario were underage yet were able to consume alcohol at a local bar,” Tate said in a campus-wide email in January. “As such, our action plan starts with a deep and relentless focus on any establishment that profits off our students by providing alcohol to underage individuals.”
Reggie’s didn’t live up to the obligation to keep its customers safe, especially those who are underage, the ATC commissioner said.
“The issuance of an alcohol license is a privilege, not a right,” Legier said. “You accept the responsibility that the state has for ensuring public safety. Our chief and principal mission is to make sure that underage individuals don’t have access to alcohol. This business failed in this regard, and it led to tragic circumstances.”
Brooks left Reggie’s with assailants before death, police say
Brooks, of Madisonville, was a political communication sophomore at LSU. She was a member of the Alpha Phi sorority, and “by all accounts, she was an amazing young woman with limitless potential,” Tate said.
In the days following Brooks’ death, multiple arrests were made in connection to the alleged rape.
Kaivon Washington, 18, was charged with third-degree rape. Desmond Carter, 17, was charged with first-degree and third-degree rape and will be tried as an adult.
Everett Lee, 27, and Casen Carver, 18, are charged with principal to third-degree rape. Police allege they were in the car while the rape occurred but didn’t participate.
First-degree rape is the most serious offense of sexual violence under Louisiana law, punishable by life in prison without parole.
Louisiana law says that third-degree rape can occur when the victim, through intoxication, is incapable of resisting or understanding the nature of the act.
Police say Brooks had a blood alcohol content of 0.319, nearly four times the legal driving limit in Louisiana. A person can become unconscious at a BAC of around 0.300, according to the American Addiction Centers.
A troubled history
Though Brooks’ case is the one that shuttered Reggie’s doors, stories like hers are tragically common, a sexual violence expert told the Baton Rouge Press Club in February.
Morgan Lamandre, the president and CEO of Sexual Trauma Awareness and Response, said her nonprofit sees similar situations every weekend where a woman is raped in Tigerland, the popular bar district near LSU.
Advocates from STAR frequently accompany women to local hospitals who have been victims of similar crimes as Brooks, Lamandre said. The only difference, she said, is that they’re alive to tell their stories.
“Most people are finally seeing this because she died,” Lamandre said of Brooks’ case.
Headlines of other violent incidents have frequented Tigerland over the years, including Reggie’s.
In 2014, a man was charged with attempted first-degree murder by the Baton Rouge Police Department after a 20-year-old and 23-year-old were shot behind Reggie’s.
In 2015, two intoxicated men pointed a loaded gun at patrons and employees inside Reggie’s and threatened to open fire.
In 2016, an LSU football player was stabbed in a brawl outside Reggie’s, according to The Advocate.
Some criticized Tate’s blame of Tigerland in the aftermath of the rape arrests.
“After the horrific rape and death of LSU student Madison Brooks, community conversations almost entirely revolved around alcohol and underage drinking,” Lamandre wrote in a column in The Advocate. “LSU has seen several student deaths related to alcohol poisoning and hazing, but blaming her death on alcohol is a disingenuous deflection tactic. Had Madison been given a ride home by anyone other than rapists, she likely would have been brought somewhere safe and still be alive today.”
She said that alcohol is never the cause of rape but a way that perpetrators facilitate rape.
Tate wrote in a column of his own that several evils were at work in the Brooks case.
“We know the first. It’s sitting in parish prison as I write this,” he said in a nod to the arrests.
But Tate said that a second evil sustained the first: alcohol.
“Our students should be able to drink responsibly, to have fun, to simply be, without being hunted by predators, and enforcing the law is paramount to their pursuit of safe, fulfilling social lives.
“But evil people exist in this world, and they know that the purposefully cultivated environment at some bars allow predators to take advantage of our young people while their guards are down,” he wrote.
“That’s not blaming victims,” Tate continued. “That’s enabling criminals. And I won’t stand for it.”
“Tigerlands” exist across the country, Tate said, adding that “we must intervene.”
‘Racist’ dress codes
There have been more than two decades of student complaints that Reggie’s applied its dress code in a racist manner.
In 2003, the Reveille published an investigation into what students said were discriminatory dress codes at Tigerland.
At Reggie’s, the dress code sign read: “No Jerseys. No FUBU Shirts. No Excessively Baggy Pants. No Mr. ‘T’ Starter Kits. No All White Shoes. No Visible Beepers.”
Many students told the Reveille they felt like this was targeting Black students. Then-president of the LSU chapter of the NAACP, Melody Robinson, pointed especially to the ban on the FUBU brand because it was owned by Black designers and was predominantly worn by Black customers.
“I honestly think this is saying, ‘We don’t want black people in our bars,’” Robinson told the Reveille. “This is just another way to say, ‘We don’t want coloreds’ without saying ‘no coloreds.'”
The NAACP chapter launched a Tigerland boycott following the article’s publication.
But years later, the problem remained.
A student, Charles Nathaniel Steptoe III, told the Reveille in 2019 that he was warned when he came to LSU that “Tigerland was racist.”
“When you’re saying no ripped jeans and no chains and no solid colors, that’s not you directly saying ‘I don’t want black people here,’” Steptoe said. “But that is you saying you don’t want black people here.”
What now?
That long, controversial history has come to an end—under the current Reggie’s ownership. But the building will soon become a part of an expanded Fred’s Bar and Grill, which operates next door, according to The Advocate.
Reggie’s had been leasing the property from Fred’s owners, The Advocate reported. The owner, Marc Fraioli, told The Advocate an expansion had already been in the works but was accelerated by Reggie’s closing.
Kerry Miller, a lawyer representing Brooks’ mother, said he’ll be monitoring the location.
“We’re going to do good for the people of Louisiana, the college students at LSU, other college students in the state to make sure no bad actors … ever get a license to serve liquor in this college town,” Miller said.
Reggie’s shuttering might not be the only change after Brooks’ death.
Prompted by Brooks’ death, Sen. Beth Mizell, R-Franklinton, authored Senate Bill 194, known as the Card ‘Em Act. The bill would prohibit anyone under 21 from entering Louisiana bars and increase fines for bars found serving people who are underage. The Brooks’ family supports the bill, according to Miller.
“What we know from this situation is whatever rules are in place are not followed because of the power of money,” Miller said. “And so, we’re gonna support that bill and support every attempt it is to make that culture change here and make the process safer for young people, college students in Louisiana.”
Gabby Jimenez contributed to this report.
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