After three days of testimony spread out over the last seven weeks, a Virginia Alcoholic Beverage Control Board hearing to determine the status of the Foxfield Racing Association's liquor license ended yesterday -- with no decision in sight until at least mid-December.
Lawyers for Foxfield and the ABC will submit closing arguments and rebuttals to hearing officer Clara A. Williamson by Dec. 15, at which point she will decide what penalties, if any, to impose on Foxfield.
The ABC has charged Foxfield with two infractions of state law that allegedly occurred at last spring's Foxfield races on April 27: allowing "noisy or disorderly conduct" to go on, and allowing 20 people who Foxfield knew or had reason to believe were drunk to "loiter" at the racetrack.
"It's a question of how many violations occurred," said James Schliessmann, one of the lawyers from the Commonwealth's Attorney General's office representing the ABC.
It isn't yet clear what penalties Schliessmann and his partner Matthew Dullaghan will seek against Foxfield, but they could include fines, suspension or revocation of Foxfield's liquor license.
Foxfield is not allowed to sell alcoholic beverages but holds an "equine liquor license" allowing the association to permit consumption on its property at the annual fall and spring races.
The hearings almost never took place, Foxfield Attorney J. Benjamin Dick said.
On Sept. 12, the first day of hearings, Foxfield reached an agreement with Schliessman and Dullaghan, Dick said. A written, but not signed, agreement provided by Dick acknowledged that a small number of attendees in the student section at the spring 2002 Foxfield Races were drunk and disorderly but let Foxfield off without punishment. The agreement acknowledges that Foxfield was "at a severe disadvantage" because local police refused to patrol within Foxfield property.
The agreement also cites a number of measures Foxfield implemented before and during the spring 2002 races to police the Foxfield grounds, educate students about alcohol abuse, provide medical care and prevent drunk driving. The document says these steps fulfill an agreement Foxfield reached with Albemarle County, law enforcement and ABC officials.
In the agreement, Foxfield agrees to expand those efforts for this year's race.
But the ABC office in Richmond vetoed the agreement at the last minute, Dick said, and the hearing went forward.
Schliessman and Dullaghan declined to comment, and ABC officials were not available.
The ABC presented its evidence Sept. 12 in the form of two videotapes taken by ABC agents at the April 27 race. The tapes show students, some of them vomiting and publicly urinating, alleged to be severely intoxicated.
Dick said the tapes did not prove the students were intoxicated with alcohol.
Dick then called on several residents of the area surrounding the Foxfield site who said the races did not bother them.
Susan Bruce, director of the University's Center for Alcohol and Substance Education, testified about a series of posters paid for by Foxfield intended to educate students about drinking safely. But the prosecution introduced into evidence a letter from a 2002 University graduate calling that campaign ineffective.
The hearings resumed Oct. 28, with Foxfield presenting its own videotapes.The Foxfield videos showed mostly sober students, according to Dick.
The videos also focused on Foxfield programs designed to ensure patron safety, such as the Savvy Fox designated-driver program and efforts by Foxfield private security to assist drunk students, Dick said.
Hearings continued yesterday with a contentious cross-examination by Dick of Paula Garrett, a former local president of Mothers Against Drunk Driving who filed a complaint against Foxfield in 2001. Prosecutors stood up often to object to Dick's questions.
"Are you biased and prejudiced against Foxfield?" Dick asked.
Williamson refused to allow a petition signed by over 120 University students in support of Foxfield into evidence.
Law student Wyeth Ruthven, who started the petition, said he spoke to Student Council, the Inter-Fraternity Council and the Student Bar Association about his campaign.
"All of those organizations were helpful in distributing the petition," Ruthven said.
After yesterday's hearing, Raymond Woolfe, who designed the Foxfield course in 1977 and ran the races in its first six years, lamented the changes that have come to the event as it has become defined by large numbers of students attending and consuming alcohol.
"I hate seeing the loss of the true meaning of what Foxfield is," Woolfe said.
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