Rhino Lounge employees to be recertified following drunk-driving incident

The License Commission ordered that the Rhino Lounge, a bar and restaurant at 11 Cooper St., have its employees retrained after a man allegedly served at the bar was found passed out in a gas station parking lot. 

Lt. Det. Micheal Moriarty, the Police Department’s liaison to the commission, told board members at its meeting last Wednesday night that the man was found passed out in a car in front of the Mobil gas station at 1335 Main St. on Jan. 5.

According to Moriarty, officers responded at approximately 1:49 a.m. and observed that the driver was passed out in a running vehicle with the keys still in the ignition.

When officers opened the door of the vehicle, the operator attempted to drive away.

Officers were able to put the vehicle in park and remove the keys from the ignition.

They noted that the driver had a strong scent of alcohol coming from his breath, bloodshot eyes and slurred speech.

The officers ordered the driver out of the vehicle, at which point the driver told officers that he had been driving home from the Rhino Lounge.

Moriarty said the driver failed a field sobriety test and was placed under arrest for operating a motor vehicle while under the influence of alcohol.

Moriarty told License Commission members an officer went to the Rhino Lounge on Jan. 10 and spoke with lounge co-owner James Serumaga, who told police that he remembered seeing the individual but could not remember how much he had to drink, because it was a busy night. A bartender shared a similar report with the officer. The lounge could not locate a tab for the individual.

Police forwarded the report to the License Commission following the investigation.

Serumaga and Robert Kayanja, co-owners and managers of the establishment, both appeared in front of the License Commission at the Feb. 26 meeting.

Throughout the meeting Serumaga said that he did not recognize the individual in question or remember if he saw him in the lounge that night despite what was written in the police report.

Kayanja said that the bar stops accepting new patrons at 12:30 a.m. 

Commissioner Kevin Ritchey said that fact along with confirmations from employees who said they saw the individual led him to believe that the individual had been in the bar “for quite a while.”

“I don’t agree,” Serumaga responded, saying that he would have remembered the man because the bar was not crowded that night.

Ritchey said that he had to make a decision based on the police report.

“I’ve got to take the report and what the lieutenant found out because, I mean, he’s the guy we listen to,” he said.

Ultimately, the commission voted to have employees recertified in the Training and Intervention Procedures for Servers of Alcohol (TIPS) program. Wayne F. Brasco, the commission chairman, was not present at the meeting.

TIPS is a program that trains staff on how to serve alcohol responsibly. Bars must have their staff certified under TIPS or a similar training program to retain their liquor licenses in Waltham.