Downtown bar faces liquor suspension in April and July
By Lew K. Cohn
Managing Editor
The Highlander
A Marble Falls bar's alcohol license will be suspended next month for selling alcoholic beverages to intoxicated persons, including an incident which resulted in a 2014 traffic accident which killed a Granite Shoals woman.
The Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission (TABC) levied the suspension against Mr. B's Sports Bar, 207 Main Street, which will take place from April 4 through April 24, a period of 20 days, during which the bar will not be allowed to sell any alcohol.
TABC investigators determined the establishment was at fault for selling alcohol to an intoxicated individual, Matthew Lewallen of Burnet, on Sept. 21, 2014.
According to Marble Falls police, Lewallen, who was 26 at the time, had a blood-alcohol contest of three times more than the legal limit of 0.08 when he drove his 2003 Chevy Silverado pickup into oncoming traffic in the 1400 block of US 281 and collided with a Ford Explorer driven by Sandra Hart, 47, of Granite Shoals, at 2:20 a.m., just 20 minutes after the bar, which is located next door to the Marble Falls Police Department, had closed for business.
Hart died at the scene. After fire crews freed Lewallen from his vehicle, he was conscious “but not aware of how the crash happened or of his surroundings,” according to an arrest warrant affidavit written by Marble Falls police officer Dorian Turner.
“During my contact with him, I smelled a strong odor of an alcoholic beverage emitting from his breath, his speech was slurred, the whites of his eyes were really red (bloodshot) and he said he had consumed two beers,” Turner wrote.
After toxicology tests came back, Lewallen was arrested for intoxication manslaughter and booked into the Burnet County Jail on Oct. 15, 2014, and released later in the day after posting a $7,500 bond. His arrest came nearly one month after the accident.
He pleaded guilty in September 2015 to the charge and was sentenced to 10 years in prison, but the charge was probated last February.
Mr. B's also faces a second possible suspension this year for selling alcohol to an intoxicated individual on May 13 last year. The bar must either pay a civil fine of $300 per day, or $8,400, or serve a suspension from June 28 through July 25, a period of 28 days.
According to TABC records, an employee of the establishment also sold alcohol to an intoxicated person in June 2014, but the violation was restrained under the Safe Harbor Act, which allows a business' license to be protected from administrative action as long as certain conditions are met, including certification of all employees through a TABC-approved seller course.
The business' liquor license is current pending renewal at this time, having an issuance date of Nov. 23, 2009, and an expiration date of Oct. 22, 2015.
