Bar owners' challenge goes up in smoke

Three local bar owners pleaded guilty Thursday to violating the state's smoking ban, agreeing to pay fines in return for having some charges against them dropped.

Bruce Hicks, pleaded guilty to one count of violating the state's smoking ban by allowing patrons to smoke at his Murray Street Darts bar. He was fined $321 by El Paso County Judge Karla Hansen and had another case dismissed.

Two other bar owners, Gary Bishop and Jeffrey Eickman, each pleaded guilty to one count and had two others dismissed. They each paid fines of $221.

Hicks claims police and prosecutors are picking on the bar owners because they held meetings in early 2007 to plan strategies on how to oppose the law, which went into effect in 2006.

Hicks was found guilty in two previous cases by El Paso County juries last month. But his attorney, James Dodd, has asked Hansen for a new trial because two jurors in the second trial visited Murray Street Darts, then reported back to the other jurors during deliberations that no "cigar bar" sign hung there, according to Dodd's motion.

Jurors are told by judges they are forbidden from investigating cases on their own, including visiting crime scenes or looking information up on the internet.

Colorado Springs police undercover officers witnesses patrons smoking in Hick's bar in March of 2007. Hicks' defense has been that he is exempt under Colorado's Clean Air Act as a "cigar bar" because his cigarette sales account for more than 5 percent of his overall sales.

"Two jurors went on to state that if the Defendant really ran a cigar bar, he would advertize it," the motion states. "The jurors' conduct mandates that the Defendant be granted a new trial."

In a sworn affidavit, Dodd told Hansen that he talked to one of the jurors after the trial and "the first thing out of his mouth" was that two jurors had visited the bar. A hearing on the motion has been scheduled for Dec. 1.