Tigerland bar Reggie’s has lost its liquor license, will pay an $15,000 fine and its owner is barred from ever operating an alcoholic establishment in Louisiana under the terms of a consent agreement approved by Louisiana Alcohol and Tobacco Control Commissioner Ernest Legier.
The settlement, negotiated by attorneys representing the Office of Alcohol and Tobacco Control and Reggie’s owner Darin Adams, was announced Thursday morning at the start of a hearing to determine the bar’s fate following the death of LSU student Madison Brooks on Jan. 15.
Brooks, 19, left Reggie’s in a car with three men — two of whom were also under the legal drinking age of 21 — and a 17-year-old, according to an East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff’s Office affidavit. The group pulled over after leaving the bar, and the 17-year-old and Kaivon Washington, 18, raped Brooks in the back of the car, the arrest documents say.
Brooks was left in a subdivision and was later fatally hit by a car on Burbank Drive, deputies said.
After details about the hours before Brooks’ death were released in January, LSU President William F. Tate IV issued a statement blasting the fact that three of the four suspects are underage, calling for “a deep and relentless focus on any establishment that profits off our students by providing alcohol to underage individuals.”
Shortly after, ATC issued an emergency suspension of Reggie’s liquor license. That means the bar was temporarily unable to serve alcohol until an administrative hearing can take place, Legier said.
The agency issued the emergency suspension for Reggie’s bar due to “the seriousness of the allegations and the potential threat to public safety” laid bare by the case, Legier said at the time.
This is not the bar’s first run-in with state alcohol regulators.
The bar’s state liquor license was suspended for 45 days and its owners were fined $8,000 in 2017 after a hearing that focused largely on minors found on the premises and minors in possession of alcohol during an undercover sting at the bar.
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