LITTLE ROCK — The Little Rock bar where former Razorback Darren McFadden, 20, was involved in a fight last month was fined $500 Tuesday and put on probation by the state Alcoholic Beverage Control Division.
Two managers and a doorman from Ernie Biggs, a piano bar in the downtown River Market district, admitted in letters to alcohol regulators that a bouncer let McFadden inside Jan. 9 knowing that he was not 21.
State law prohibits private clubs that do not serve food from allowing those under 21 inside.
A fight occurred inside the bar that night, and bouncer Brant Hankins was hit in the face as he tried to escort someone from McFadden's group outside, according to a Little Rock police report.
The police report listed McFadden's older brother, Bilal Muhammad, as the person Hankins was escorting, but Hankins has said that it was McFadden's younger brother, Daryl McFadden, who was 17 at the time.
Darren Mc-Fadden, who is now preparing for the NFL draft, was briefly handcuffed after the ruckus but was later released without being charged.
Alcoholic Beverage Control Administration Director Michael Langley, who initially said he would hold a public hearing so that discrepancies between police and witness accounts could be addressed, said Tuesday that such a hearing ultimately wasn't needed.
"They knowingly allowed somebody under the age of 21 tocome into the bar," Langley said. "But, opposite of that, they also came forward to us and said, 'We did this. We admit we did this. We admit that we screwed up, and we are happy to have whatever punishment you deem necessary to dole out.'"
As a result, Ernie Biggs accepted a $500 fine and one year of probation with a promise of getting shut down if a similar violation occurs during that time.
A call to Andrew Faulkner, an attorney representing Ernie Biggs, was not returned Tuesday.
This is the first time Ernie Biggs has been found in violation of allowing a minor inside.
Typically, a bar found to have violated that regulation gets a $250 fine and 90 days of probation for a first offense, Langley said.
"There was some conflictingtestimony as to whether [McFadden] was served alcohol or not, and so we went on the basis that he probably was and so we offered them a $500 fine," Langley said. "We weren't going to cut them any slack."
In April 2006, the bar was fined $750 and put on probation for six months over December 2005 incidents involving employees taking shots of liquor while on duty and serving an intoxicated person.
Ernie Biggs was also found in violation of the Arkansas Clean Indoor Air Act because it didn't have the required exemption from the state Department of Health to allow smoking in the bar.
Health Department spokesman Ed Barham said Tuesday that the bar has since received its exemption. The state Boardof Health rarely fines establishments for violating the act unless they repeatedly refuse to comply with it, Barham has said.
As for varying reports on whether Daryl McFadden was inside the bar that night, Langley based his decision on information from the police. If the division had found that more than one minor was in the bar that night, Ernie Biggs could have been fined more or been shut down for awhile.
Faulkner has previously said he couldn't confirm whether Daryl McFadden was inside the bar that night.
"There's speculation as to whether he was there or not, but since the hearing didn't occur, no testimony came in beyond what was in the police report," Langley said. "Whether it was one or three, or two or 20, they admitted ... 'We screwed up.' It was bad enough with Darren, much less additional folks, too."
Arkansas, Pages 9, 14 on 02/27/2008