This Just In...
Kevin Fischer is an award-winning veteran broadcaster who has been seen and heard on Milwaukee TV and radio stations for nearly three decades.
Kevin, who is a legislative aide to state Sen. Mary Lazich (R-New Berlin), can be seen offering his views on the news on the public affairs program, “INTERchange,” on Milwaukee Public Television Channel 10. He lives with his wife, Jennifer, in Franklin.
Will anything ever happen to the Buckhorn?
By Kevin Fischer
Tuesday, Jul 29 2008, 10:45 PM
The Buckhorn is the Franklin bar that served Eddie Lynn Keck over and over and over again last Christmas until he left drunk and then ran down a West Allis couple, killing them.
Tonight, WTMJ-TV Channel 4’s John Mercure did a special report on Wisconsin law pertaining to over-serving. Mercure reported on the case of a young man who went out drinking on the eve of his 21st birthday with friends to the Slammer bar in Waupun. He drank 18 shots of liquor in an hour before the bartender stopped serving him. His friends (some friends) took him home, where he died later.
Mercure interviewed the Fond du Lac County District Attorney on camera who said he felt he couldn’t, based on current Wisconsin law, prosecute the bartender. Mercure reported that it takes about an hour for the young man in the story to have become intoxicated and that the bartender stopped serving while the customer did not appear to be drunk.
The Fond du Lac County DA also said he knows of no case in the state of Wisconsin of a bar being prosecuted and found guilty of over-serving.
It’s clear the Buckhorn over-served and that Keck, who has since entered a plea of guilty on two counts of homicide by intoxicated use of a motor vehicle, will be going to prison.
The Buckhorn should have come up for a review of its license by city of Franklin officials a long time ago. The excuse that the city has to wait while the criminal justice system plays out is a copout. Franklin has a responsibility to ensure the public safety of its boundaries. I submit the Buckhorn license should have been stripped.
But will that ever happen?
Don’t be surprised if nothing happens.
