The Rhode Island Department of Business Regulation ordered on Friday, Sept. 24, that the Italo-American Club in Warren be granted a stay of its liquor license revocation — contingent on the club restricting its sale of liquor from 12 to 8 p.m. and enacting a new safety plan that includes more active reporting of “all observed unruly, argumentative, or threatening conduct by any patron of the Club” to Warren police.

The recommendation, written by DBR Hearing Officer Catherine Warren and signed by DBR Director Elizabeth Tanner, will set the stage for a full hearing between the Town of Warren and representatives of the club, where more facts of the case will be outlined and a final decision regarding the club’s liquor license will be determined (which could then be appealed to the Superior and Supreme courts). A date for that hearing has not yet been determined, but could be held as early as mid-October.

The recommendation letter re-established facts that were outlined in the show-cause hearing held earlier this month at the Warren Town Council, where the license was revoked.
This included the fact that the club had no proven history of violent or actionable unlawful incidents against them in its history, and that Michael Ouellette, the former club president who shot and killed long-time Assistant Fire Chief Brian Remy and seriously wounded club patron Jason Furtado, left the premises to retrieve a gun from his residence before returning and carrying out the shooting.

The recommendation also outlines a lack of clarity regarding some of the important details regarding what happened immediately prior to the shooting.

“The Appellant [the Italo-American Club] is responsible for disorderly conduct of its patrons inside or disorderly conduct outside that can be directly or indirectly linked to something that occurred inside,” the recommendation reads. “Here, the shooter left the Appellant but for how long and what happened before he left to retrieve his gun is unknown. Additionally, what happened when he returned and shot his victims is unclear. There were no allegations that the Appellant had a security plan in place that it failed to follow.”

The recommendation letter also mentioned that, while it was established through police investigation that Ouellette had been drinking the morning of the murder, there was not yet a toxicology report that could confirm whether he was intoxicated at the time of the incident. It recommends, acknowledging that the club could still serve its patrons food and non-alcoholic beverages to raise revenue, that the club be limited to serving alcohol from the hours of noon until 8 p.m.

“This condition allows the Appellant, a social club, to serve alcohol at meal times as part of its food service rather than just allow drinking at any time,” it reads. “In addition, prior to the Appellant beginning to serve alcohol again, the Appellant must notify the Board of a contact person responsible for ensuring that the hours for serving alcohol are complied with by the Appellant.”

Town asks to review safety plan

Through its order, the Department of Business Regulations also required the club to create a new safety plan to prevent such incidents from occurring at the club again.

Acquired by the Times-Gazette, the safety plan includes provisions such as prohibiting guns from the premises, posting signage prohibiting “argumentative or threatening speech and behavior,” maintaining security video to cover common areas, and ensuring that all bartenders are trained in a “Conflict Management Plan” to direct offending patrons be asked, then told, and finally “made to correct their behavior.”

Club patrons, as part of the order, are advised it is “their responsibility to immediately contact the Warren Police Department should they observe or hear of an escalating conflict within or on the grounds of the Club,” and then to vacate the premises as they await police to arrive and address the involved patrons.

Town Solicitor Anthony DeSisto, in a brief sent to DBR following the order, asked if the town could review the proposed safety plan prior to allowing the club to serve alcohol again, “to determine whether it is sufficient to prevent further acts of violence, or whether the plan is deficient in that respect.”

As far as Keri Cronin, Town Council president and the person who originally motioned to revoke the club’s license during the mid-September meeting, is concerned — the DBR decision is not a satisfactory outcome.

“It’s sort of a slap on the wrist level decision. It feels very much like the punishment does not fit or suit the crime,” she said.
Cronin said that the decision cheapened the actions of various establishments in town that hold liquor licenses and take the responsibility inherent with that more seriously.

“When you consider that there are a multitude of permits to serve alcohol in this town, held both by restaurants, bars and other social clubs, the lack of seriousness taken to the extreme level of violence that occurred is an offense to all of those good business owners,” she said, adding that one of the club’s patrons had testified to Ouellette’s observed worsening mental state during the show-cause hearing. “They recognized that a man was in crisis and was acting out and behaving in a way that was not normal, and they did nothing about it. And that’s a fact.”

The Town of Warren will hold a renewal process for all the town’s liquor licensees on Nov. 9, according to DeSisto — including that of the Italo-American Club.

“The Town will request that the [DBR] hearing be held before that date,” he said.