NEW ULM — A July 27 street dance with a large crowd of people standing in the street after coming out of the B & L Bar led to two misdemeanor charges filed in Brown County District Court Sept. 11. The charges have to do with reports of drinking outside a licensed area in the street.

Misdemeanor charges of a liquor license premises violation were filed against B & L Bar Inc. and Ricky A. Kamm, 6 Ridgeview Dr., New Ulm. At an Oct. 4 arraignment, Kamm said he retained New Ulm attorney Dustan Cross, wished to plead not guilty and requested a jury trial.

At a pre-trial hearing Tuesday, Cross said Kamm is not an individual licensee, as City of New Ulm Code 5.13.2, the cited statute in the charge, reads.

“I think the State agrees Kamm is not an individual licensee. The charges are defective. There is no probable cause,” Cross said. “This is selective prosecution. The witnesses don’t have sufficient probable cause.”

An evidentiary hearing was set for 1 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 31. A one-day trial was set for 8:30 a.m. Wednesday, Nov. 20.

According to court documents, New Ulm Police were on foot patrol in downtown New Ulm at 10:45 p.m. July 27, during a street dance in front of the B & L Bar. Police saw a large crowd of people, most of them consuming alcoholic beverages, standing on the street after coming out of the B & L Bar.

Police talked to some of the people who would go into the bar after they were told not to drink alcoholic beverages in the street. Officers saw several people walking around downtown with open bottles or partially-consumed alcoholic drinks.

The liquor license granted to the B & L Bar and in force at the time of the street dance only permitted alcoholic beverage consumption on Minnesota Street directly in front of the B & L Bar.

Police found the B & L Bar owner, Kamm, who was working at the bar during the dance. Kamm said he would have those who were drinking alcoholic beverages come back closer to the bar.

On Aug. 2, officers talked to a witness who was at the street dance and said he saw alcohol being passed around and knew there was alcohol in the street. The witness said Kamm only started corralling people out of the street who had alcoholic beverages after police talked to him. The witness said most of the people drinking in the street were B & L Bar patrons.

On Aug. 15, police talked to another witness who said she was at the street dance and got an alcoholic drink from the B & L. Both witnesses said they took beverages from the B & L Bar outside the licensed area.

Fritz Busch can be emailed at fbusch@nujournal.com.