Bars cleared of some smoking ban charges

A judge Monday tossed out most of the charges against three bar owners cited for defying the state’s smoking ban by allowing customers to light up.

El Paso County Court Judge Karla Hansen dismissed 19 of 23 misdemeanor counts against Bruce Hicks, owner of Murray Street Darts in Colorado Springs. She also dismissed all but three charges apiece against bar owners Jeffrey Eickman and Gary Bishop.

Hansen did not rule on the legality of the ban. But she noted that under Colorado’s Clean Indoor Air Act, which prohibited smoking in bars effective July 2006, bar owners could be cited for one violation per day.

A conviction carries a maximum $200 fine.

Fourth Judicial District Attorney’s Office prosecutors had questioned, according to court documents, if that interpretation gave a bar owner license to break the law for the rest of the day once they’d been cited for a violation.

They argued the intent of the law was to “improve the health, comfort and environment” of bars for patrons and employees, and enforcing it requires being able to issue a citation for each smoker lighting up.

District attorney spokeswoman Denise Minish said prosecutors have not decided whether to appeal Hansen’s ruling.

Colorado Springs police issued citations after Hicks and other bar owners who said the ban had cost them business announced they intended to openly defy it.

Hicks’ attorney James Dodd said after the ruling Monday that prosecutors and police “overcharged” in the cases.

“What happened today is just the first step in the process to get this case where it needs to be,” said Dodd, who plans to attack the constitutionality of the law at trial. He also claimed police targeted Hicks because he was the most vocal about defying the law.

The last ruling on the controversial law was overturned last week when a district court judge in Adams County ruled the law constitutional.