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The Dripby Fern Shen10:52 amJul 11, 20130

After flaws found, Horseshoe Baltimore casino will file new liquor license application

Fogleman says new application will have additional name, “with Maryland ties”

Above: Signage outside the new Horseshoe Baltimore casino rising up on industrial land on Russell Street.

After reports that the city Liquor Board approved the new Horseshoe Baltimore casino’s liquor license application – even though it lacked proper documentation – the gambling emporium is being asked to come back to the city with a new application.

“A new application will be filed on or before Aug. 6,” Liquor Board Chairman Stephan A. Fogleman said yesterday, noting that the new application will necessitate a new public hearing where “it will all be explained by their attorney.”

“Basically, a corporate structure change is being made” to respond to problems discovered with their application “after the Liquor Board preliminarily approved it” at the June 20 meeting, Fogleman said, speaking by phone with The Brew.

The discovery was first made by Community Law Center attorney Christina Schoppert Devereux, who is attending weekly Liquor Board meetings and blogging about them in the wake of a highly critical state audit report. (The Brew, which has been featuring her blog on our homepage, later confirmed the problems with the application.)

“Just met” casino GM

By law, the application was to include signatures from three Baltimore City property owners who have known the applicant for at least two years.

But the three people who provided signatures attesting to the character of casino general manager Chad Barnhill – all employees of the law firm representing the casino, Rosenberg Martin Greenberg LLP – hadn’t actually known Barnhill long enough.

The two attorneys, Stanley Fine and Caroline Hecker, indicated on the application that they have only known the applicant for four months – though in signing, they certified that they have “been acquainted with the applicant for a period of more than two years.” The third person, a paralegal at the firm, indicated in the document that she had “just met” Barnhill.

Failing to obtain proper documentation before approving liquor licenses was one of the issues raised in the state’s March audit.

Adding some Maryland ties

Fogleman said the new liquor license application will require a “re-vetting” but said the applicant plans to comply under “a new corporate entity” that received approval by the Maryland Lottery and Gaming Control Commission.

Barnhill (most recently the general manager of a Horseshoe casino in Bossier City, Louisiana) “will remain on the license, but a new applicant, with Maryland ties, will be added,” Fogleman said.

He said that Horseshoe’s attorney, Stanley Fine, (one of the three Rosenberg Martin Greenberg employees who said they knew Barnhill for two years when they did not) will provide details about the new corporate structure at the public hearing.

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