Billy Frogg’s Loses Liquor License
Old Market Location Subject Of Bouncer Abuse Claim
POSTED: 7:22 pm CDT July 16, 2009
UPDATED: 12:15 pm CDT July 17, 2009
OMAHA, Neb. — A popular Old Market bar and grill lost its liquor license on Thursday after several complaints that bouncers at Billy Frogg’s used excessive force on patrons.
One man said he has injuries to back up his claims.
“They sewed my eyebrow back on and up underneath, my eye was all split wide open,” said Aaron Hotz.
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Hotz, 23, said he told Nebraska Liquor Control commissioners that he got the injuries after tangling with a Billy Frogg’s bouncer last August.
He said he was bar hopping with buddies as part of a bachelor party and admits that he was intoxicated and argued with security when the bouncer turned him away from entering Billy Frogg’s while carrying the beer.
“I remember getting tackled,” he said. “That’s basically it, a hand around my throat and it was lights out.”
His friends said they found him lying in a pool of blood outside the establishment. He later went to a hospital and filed a report with police.
“I think his story is fabricated,” said Billy Frogg’s manager King Johnson. “There are so many holes in it, anything could have happened that night.”
Johnson said Hotz changed his story from being beaten up by as many as four bouncers to just one. He also said there is no proof about what happened and no criminal assault charges were ever filed.
“I don’t think there’s any way you can say Billy Frogg’s put that man in those sort of conditions,” Johnson said.
The lawyer from the Nebraska Attorney General’s Office said the bar has a pattern of bouncers getting too rough and that there have been two other complaints filed in the past three years.
Hotz said the bouncer that he believes assaulted him had been warned before. He no longer works for Billy Frogg’s.
The bar’s owner said he will appeal the decision, which only applies to the Old Market location. He said he wanted to speak with his attorney before making any statements.
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It’s a SADU Day IN Old Market History.