The manager of an east Atlanta bar and his employer are in hot water after he allegedly invited a mayoral aide and an off-duty police officer to an illegal after-hours party over the weekend.
The unsolicited invite led Atlanta police to pay a visit to the Asylum Lounge around 7:15 a.m. Wednesday, authorities said. Inside they found customers drinking alcohol nearly five hours after the city’s mandated 2:30 a.m. last call, Atlanta police spokesman John Chafee said. Officers said they also discovered that the bar’s alcohol permit had expired.
Four nights earlier, bar manager Couri Williams allegedly told Stephanie Ramage, appointed by Mayor Kasim Reed in 2011 as Atlanta’s first citizens’ advocate, and an off-duty Atlanta Police Department officer about a birthday party being held at Asylum.
Admission was $10, Williams said, but the beer was free, adding the party “would really be rollin’ around 4 (a.m.),” according to the incident report. Ramage and the officer were on the patio at the Midway Pub across Flat Shoals Avenue from Asylum at the time, the report said.
The officer went to Asylum with two additional Zone 6 officers and cited Williams for selling alcohol during unauthorized hours. But, according to police, he was undeterred.
Williams was arrested Wednesday morning and charged with the same offense, along with selling alcohol without a license and other code violations. Officers removed all alcohol from the premises, Chafee said.
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