NEW YORK – A judge temporarily closed a bar on Staten Island that has been the center of controversy for months regarding compliance with both state and city COVID-19 regulations.
New York City says a judge ordered the shutdown after Mac’s Public House, on Staten Island, sold alcohol last week despite having a suspended liquor license.
Agents from the New York City Sheriff’s Office entered the business Friday night to execute a temporary lockdown order. Sheriff Joseph Fucito said officers locked the store after they swept it out and made sure no one was inside.
The Staten Island bar has been at odds with city officials for months for testing the limits of regulations implemented during the ongoing pandemic.
The general manager of the bar, Danny Presti, he was arrested twice in December for repeated rapes. A huge protest gathered outside after his second arrest and after the bar was declared an “autonomous zone.”
In a Facebook post this week, the bar’s owners said they would fight the latest charges and the forced closure.
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