Looney’s Pub College Park
City officials are criticizing Looney’s Pub after an Oct. 2 sexual assault revealed what council members say are permit violations.
Police said a male college student was sexually assaulted by an alleged serial sexual predator Oct. 2, and they believe the pair met at Looney’s during a beer pong tournament. The pub’s management met with city officials at Tuesday’s City Council work session to discuss the incident and Looney’s city property use agreement, which council members said does not allow for drinking games such as beer pong.
“Licensee shall not provide tables, such as a beer pong table, whose purpose is for use in drinking games. Licensee shall not sponsor or support drinking games within the Property,” reads the agreement, which Looney’s management signed in August 2011.
The property use agreement between Looney’s and the city does not mention that the pub will hold beer pong events, though beer pong tournaments have been taking place on Wednesdays.
Pub management said the events were designed to promote competition, not drinking. They were open to the public, and participants signed a waiver explaining that “under no circumstances do they have to drink,” Looney’s co-owner Bill Larney said at the work session. All the cups were also filled with water, not beer, he added.
“When people play in our events, they see that it’s not really a college drinking game that they’re involved drinking game that they’re involved in,” said Austin Lanham, co-founder and president of Maryland Beer Pong.
Lanham said there is no difference between the organized tournaments and other events held at bars, such as trivia nights.
But councilmembers said the absence of both alcohol and the pressure to drink was not enough; there is an indirect relationship between holding the beer pong event and encouraging alcohol consumption, District 2 Councilman-elect P.J. Brennan said.
“You’re marketing it as a drinking game,” he said. “The environment that it is creating is also to be considered.”
Mayor Andy Fellows said property use agreements are made to ensure that drinking games do not happen.
The meeting Tuesday night was not the first time the city has had an incident with Looney’s, District 4 Councilwoman Denise Mitchell said.
In February 2012, county liquor board officials visited the pub about beer pong events, though they determined that the use of cups of water and the waiver placed the events sufficiently within the bounds of the property use agreement’s restrictions. Mitchell said she will ask Prince George’s County Board of License Commissioners representatives to “keep an eye” on the pub.
The pub’s ownership is taking steps to comply with the licensing agreements. In an email, Looney’s general manager Christine Meagher wrote that the pub opted to cancel Wednesday night beer pong — a move Fellows said is an important step toward ensuring that nothing like the sexual assault happens again.
Looney’s has been very cooperative as police continue to investigate the case, which is still open and ongoing, said Sgt. Michael Sugrue, a Montgomery County Police spokesman. A suspect in the case, 38-year-old Joey Poindexter of Gaithersburg, was arrested Oct. 9 in connection with the alleged assault.
Lanham said that what happened was unfortunate but he doesn’t see any way his organization could have prevented what occurred.
“To relate it to Maryland Beer Pong, I think, is a little unfair. … This is going to hurt our business,” he said. “The fact that we are no longer allowed to have events at Looney’s is an example of that.”
