The more things change . . .

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Published Friday, January 21, 2000, in the Akron (Ohio) Beacon Journal.

Officials shut down E. Akron speakeasy

Police say 84-year-old man illegally sold booze out of his home pantry

BY GREGORY KORTE Beacon Journal staff writer

Project Happen, Akron's aggressive housing enforcement program, has been
used in the past to go after slumlords, drug houses and brothels.

Its latest target is an 84-year-old East Akron man accused of selling
alcohol out of his Duane Avenue home. Green McGuire is accused of
operating what officials describe as an illegal nightclub. In a raid last
month, police and health officials found a pantry full of booze with a
price list posted on the door and a list of running bar tabs from patrons.

''That's where you'd go after all the legitimate bars were closed,'' said
Robert Remmel, the special projects coordinator for the Akron Health
Department. ''There was no furniture in the front room, which he was
apparently using as some sort of dance floor.''

Police have also charged McGuire with two misdemeanor counts of illegal
sales of alcohol.

And in a rare move usually reserved for drug houses and places of
prostitution, the city prosecutor went to civil court this week to have
the house permanently shut down as a nuisance.

Akron Prosecutor Doug Powley said it's the first time the city has used
the nuisance law against a residence for selling alcohol.

''We had numerous complaints from the neighborhood,'' Powley said. ''When
you have that kind of activity, it draws other illegal activity.'' The
neighborhood is just east of South Arlington Street.

In fact, Project Happen also boarded up a house next door, where health
inspectors found 11 rocks of crack cocaine hidden above the suspended
ceiling.

But not all neighbors viewed the house as a nuisance.

One, who declined to be identified, said he never had a problem with the
house until the police raided it Dec. 14. When that happened, he said,
patrons jumped out of windows and ran through his yard.

According to the charges, McGuire sold Black Velvet whiskey and gin to an
undercover agent. But officials said McGuire also had just about every
kind of alcohol imaginable.

McGuire's telephone has been disconnected, and he could not be reached for
comment. He has not yet entered a plea to the criminal charges.

But his lawyer, Donald Walker, said McGuire didn't dispute the
allegations.

''We're going to work out something that's amenable to everybody,'' Walker
said. ''Mr. McGuire has another place to stay, and he's trying to sell the
house, so the problem will probably take care of itself.''



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Jon Stephen Miller
Managing Editor
Walt Whitman Quarterly Review
Department of English
The University of Iowa
Iowa City, Iowa  52242-1492
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