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Commonwealth v. Davis

Judgment of acquittal on charge of operating a bottle club reversed; based on plain language of statute, defendant was guilty of offense of operating an illegal bottle club; acquittal on charge of selling beer without a license in violation of Liquor Code affirmed because defendant was providing free beer.

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J. S71023/01

� 1 The Commonwealth appeals from the order of the Trial Court which granted the motion for judgment of acquittal of Appellee, Dennis G. Davis, and reversed his conviction on the charges of operating an illegal “bottle club” and selling beer at his place of business without a license, in contravention of 18 Pa.C.S.A. � 7328 and 47 P.S. � 4-492 (2), respectively. After review, we affirm in part and reverse in part.

� 2 In March of 2000, Appellee was operating a business establishment known as Club X-Treme, which was located in the borough of Indiana, Indiana County. In order to open this establishment, Appellee had made extensive renovations to an abandoned building. N.T. Trial, 11/7/2000, at 25. Appellee originally operated his facility as an entertainment establishment serving people under twenty one (21) years of age; however attendance at the establishment declined precipitously after it became known in the community that one of Appellee’s employees, unbeknownst to Appellee, was eavesdropping on customers who were college students and providing information to the police about the location of off campus drinking parties. Id. at 27. In an effort to revive his business and induce customers to return, Appellee decided to begin offering free beer. Id. at 29. Before doing so he consulted with enforcement officials from the Liquor Control Board on how to provide free beer to adult customers without violating any laws. Id. at 20, 29.

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