A Costa Mesa bar owner accused of repeatedly failing to comply with emergency health measures became the first Orange County businessman to face a criminal charge for operating during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Roland Michael Barrera, owner of Westend Bar, faces a misdemeanor charge for violation and neglect to comply with a legal order and regulation. Luiza Giulietta Mauro, a bar manager, was accused of misdemeanor for resisting a police officer, court records show.
The police, code enforcers and state liquor control agents have been to Westend Bar “countless times” since an emergency order came into force on November 19 requiring non-essential businesses to close between 10 pm and 5 am, according to a statement from the Orange County District Attorney’s Office.
The Westend Bar “on several occasions” received 50 to 70 customers without requiring them to distance themselves socially or wear facial covers, prosecutors said.
They also claim that around 11 pm on December 12, Mauro grabbed a uniformed policeman to stop him from entering the bar.
Costa Mesa Mayor Katrina Foley said Westend Bar has indeed expanded its operations, turning it into a “nightclub environment” that would not be allowed even without current health restrictions.
“We are at a time when we are in a public health crisis, probably on the brink of disaster,” said Foley. “The days of continuing education of what people already know and are intentionally challenging are over.
“It was quite evident that they were just making fun of all public health orders,” she added of Bar Westend.
No one answered a call to the bar on Thursday afternoon and a voicemail box was full. It was not clear whether Barrera or Mauro hired lawyers to represent them.
The ongoing curfew and closings have sparked protests from many restaurant and bar owners. Some openly challenged the mandates, while others spoke or expressed their concerns on social media. For some entrepreneurs, this has turned into a protest, while others say it is simply a struggle for survival.
DA officials say they have chosen to focus on “a philosophy of education and outreach” in relation to health orders, refusing to open charges in almost two dozen cases they have received about Orange County companies accused of operating illegally in the middle of the pandemic.
But district attorney Todd Spitzer said it was unacceptable for Westend Bar to “repeatedly” break the regulations and continue to operate “without even trying to institute any mitigating measures aimed at saving lives.
“This is a business that has had an opportunity after taking corrective action and has failed,” Spitzer said in a statement. “This blatant disregard for local and state health orders is a slap in the face for hard-working entrepreneurs who continue to try to do the right thing during these extremely difficult times.”
Foley said that allowing companies to operate defying health orders hurts companies that are “being good citizens and taking care of our community and its employees”.
She added that she is also concerned about reports of local bars and restaurants that possibly plan to celebrate the New Year in the midst of the pandemic.
“There are an increasing number of companies in Orange County that have decided that they know more than public health scientists,” said Foley.
Barrera, 47, of Costa Mesa and Mauro, 26, of Huntington Beach, both face up to a year in prison if convicted. However, prosecutors said they were hopeful that if there were no further violations, the case could be resolved through “educational efforts instead of imprisonment”.
The charge is set for June 22. With courts closed to the public and jury trials suspended due to the pandemic, many hearings are being postponed.
Barrera, who also owns the Costa Mesa Maison nightclub, was ordered in 2015 to pay a $ 379,000 fine for his role in recruiting investors for a $ 18 million Ponzi scheme.
Several years before that, Barrera served as a municipal consultant at one point, helping to provide entertainment for Costa Mesa’s 60th anniversary celebration that significantly exceeded the budget, partly as a result of excessive spending on music performances. Later, the city briefly closed the Maison for concerts and illegal construction.
While other Orange County companies did not face criminal charges during the pandemic outages, at least one restaurant – Basilico’s Pasta and Vino in Huntington Beach – was accused by the California Department of Alcohol Control of being a “disorderly establishment” due a policy of allowing employees not to use facial coverage.