Michigan - President of Cement City motorcycle club charged with felony

OFF THE WIRE
The president of a Cement City motorcycle club is charged with a felony after Columbia Township police found the club was selling alcohol without a license.

William Edward Holifield, 63, of Clinton was arraigned last week and is free from jail on bond, according to a statement from township police Chief David Elwell.

On July 15, the Iron Coffins club at 325 W. Main St. had an event, for which it sold admission tickets to the general public, provided food and sold alcohol, Elwell said. "It’s like an unregulated bar and it just can’t be that way."

Messages left with the club and Holifield this evening went unreturned.

Before the weekend, Holifield had been told the club was prohibited from selling alcohol. He was provided with copies of the relevant law and cautioned against it, Elwell wrote. “He went and did it anyway,” Elwell said.

About 5:45 a.m. July 16, a man police said was drunk and had been at the party was traveling at a high speed in a minivan on Main Street when the van left the road near Woodstock Street. It crashed into a vehicle parked in a yard, pushing the parked vehicle into a another vehicle and damaging both vehicles, according to Elwell’s statement.

The driver was injured, treated at a local hospital and later charged with operating while intoxicated. His blood-alcohol level was more than double the legal limit, Elwell wrote.

Initially, Holifield said the man was turned away at the gate to the party. Later, he admitted the man was ousted.

Without a license, the establishment is not subject to the same scrutiny as a licensed business, which can be a danger to the public, Elwell said. Police do not have the authority to do inspections and make sure the club is not serving people younger than 21 or those who visibly have had too much to drink, Elwell said. Under the Michigan liquor law, there are penalties for serving a visibly intoxicated person.

Police secured a warrant and searched the clubhouse on Aug. 25.

It has all the makings of a licensed liquor establishment, complete with a bar, Elwell said.

http://www.mlive.com/news/jackson/index.ssf/2011/09/president_of_cement_city_motor_1.html