Web Extra! See the complaint to the village’s liquor commissioner
The behavior at a Roosevelt Road bar has become too rowdy, according to local police, and pulling its liquor license may be the only way to diffuse the obnoxious and sometimes violent crowds that gather there.
Tonik, 7247 Roosevelt, is accused of failing to abide by several municipal regulations related to its liquor license, including allegations that employees there concealed a stabbing that occurred during the early morning hours of May 9. Also on that date, according to Police Chief Jim Ryan, bartenders continued to sell alcohol well beyond the 2 a.m. cutoff, and then tried to hide that infraction by not allowing police to enter the building.
In a four-page complaint to the village’s liquor commissioner, a position held by Mayor Anthony Calderone in accordance with state law, the police chief refers to two separate incidents in which patrons are alleged to have been fighting at the bar. The May 9 stabbing appears to have involved a smaller number of people, according to the complaint, but a woman was stabbed in the lower back after the altercation moved into a nearby parking lot. On Oct. 16, according to the chief’s complaint, an estimated 20 or 30 people began fighting in the bar, which resulted in several injuries.
According to local regulations, liquor license holders have two days to report criminal activity. In neither of these incidents did employees at Tonik tell police of the fights, said Ryan in his complaint.
It is not clear how investigators learned of the alleged incidents, or if police responded.
On Oct. 26 representatives from P2 LLC, the company that holds the liquor license, appeared briefly at village hall for a hearing on the charges. No arguments were heard, however, and the hearing was rescheduled to Nov. 12.
Ante J. Pervan and Nikola Pervan, brothers with an address in Palatine, are listed with the secretary of state as managers of the limited liability company. They declined to comment on the allegations, but said Tonik would remain open pending the outcome of the Nov. 12 hearing.
Police have increased the amount of attention paid to the small bar, said Ryan, because residents who live close by have made numerous complaints. Customers are loud, people are urinating in public and trash is being strewn through their yards, Ryan said of the annoyances.
On Sept. 21, police arrested a Melrose Park resident and Conservative Vice Lord gang member who had been hired by the bar to do promotional work. That suspect was taken into custody on an outstanding warrant from west suburban Lombard. According to Ryan, there is a persistent gang presence at Tonik that is recruited from neighborhoods on the South Side of Chicago.
“There are no local people going out to that place,” Ryan said.
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