Violence and Crack Cocaine

After a months-long investigation by the Seattle Police

Department, the city attorney’s office is attempting to shut down
a Lake City bar owned by former federal Drug Enforcement Administration
(DEA) officer Salvador Chavarria Jr. and his wife, Chun Chavarria.

Rose Garden—located at Northeast 137th Street and Lake City
Way—has, according to a letter signed by a Seattle Police
Department representative, become the source of “a pervasive pattern of
activity that threatens the public health, safety, and welfare of the
city.” Last week—in a rare example of a nightlife crackdown that
appears to be justified—City Attorney Thomas Carr’s office filed
an objection to the renewal of Rose Garden’s liquor license, scheduled
to expire April 30.

According to documents provided by the city, Rose Garden—on
the edge of the North Seattle neighborhood known to area residents and
police as “Little Beirut” [see “War Zone,” Jonah Spangenthal-Lee, March
12]—was the site of 10 violent incidents in the first nine months
of 2008.

Neighbors consider Rose Garden to be a hub of criminal activity. The
bar’s dank interior—which still has a lingering smell from the
pre-smoking-ban days—is filled with pool and foosball tables, and
is mostly lit with aging neon beer signs. A strange collection of
stuffed animals sits in a dark corner at the back of the bar. A sign
above the bathrooms emphatically states “one at a time,” while another
sign above the bar’s back door—which leads to the deck where,
according to the city’s letter, one patron was beaten and robbed last
May—states that patrons “must” purchase something to be allowed on the bar’s back deck. In 2008, police responded to multiple
reports of fights at the
bar, including one fight in which a bouncer was stabbed. In another
incident in February 2008, a patron was kicked out by one of Rose
Garden’s owners after a fight and allegedly came back later carrying an
ax. According to a police report about the incident, owner Chun
Chavarria “grabbed the ax… and hid it behind the building so he would
not find it.”

Undercover narcotics officers also repeatedly visited the bar,
purchasing crack cocaine from customers as well as one man who claimed
to be an employee of the bar. According to the city’s objection letter
sent to the Washington State Liquor Control Board, that man reportedly
told officers he “controlled the criminal activity inside and outside
the tavern” and “was the person to see for drugs.” (When
Stranger photographer Kelly O visited to take a shot of the Rose
Garden, a man came out of the bar—which was apparently
closed—and followed her to the bus stop, where he offered her
weed, meth, coke, and “cream,” slang for crack.)

The city’s letter to the liquor control board objecting to Rose
Garden’s license renewal
alleges that the bar sold untaxed
cigarettes, a violation of state law.

When confronted by the city with allegations of rampant drug dealing
at the bar, Rose Garden’s owners told police they’d heard about the
undercover operations, but were unaware of any drug dealing going on at
the bar.

However, Assistant City Attorney Ed McKenna says, “The community had
been complaining [about Rose Garden] for quite
a while.

“I think it’s a pretty blatant case,” Mc-Kenna continues. “You have
an owner of a business who is a retired drug-enforcement agent who
claims to have recognized when undercover officers were on the premises
but not known” or recognized problems with drug activity. McKenna says
undercover officers went to the bar “five or six times” and were able
to buy drugs every time. “When you have a 100 percent buy rate, that’s
pretty bad,” McKenna says.

One Lake City resident—who asked not to be named because he
fears violent retaliation by the bar’s regulars—says he became
familiar with Rose Garden over the last year, regularly accompanying a
friend when she visited the bar to buy crack.

“You want crack… go there,” the man says. He adds that the bar is
a destination for addicts from as far away as Lynnwood and Everett. “[I
had] a friend that unfortunately liked that rock stuff. I said, ‘Let me
go with you [to Rose Garden].’ It’s a lousy place for a woman to
be.”

The man says he often sat with his friend at the bar for hours,
waiting for dealers with names like Tut, Just, Pooh, and Baby Girl who
occasionally would “dab,” or rip off, his companion. Last time the man
was at the bar, he says, someone threatened to shoot him. He hasn’t
been back since.

Another Lake City resident who has been to Rose Garden several times
says that among neighborhood residents, the bar is “perceived as
dangerous” and that it “wouldn’t be
horrible if it was gone.”

The Rose Garden’s owners, the Chavarrias, did not respond to a
request for comment.