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A Jackson police officer working patrol alone earlier this month stopped to investigate an argument outside the Town Square Tavern and quickly found himself trying to break up a brawl involving eight people.

In early May, police responded to a battery report there and found a man sitting on the curb with a partially detached ear from being hit with a pint glass, court records say.

The two cases are just a couple of the calls police have responded to recently at the Town Square Tavern involving battery, disturbances, public intoxication and false identification.

While he doesn’t have concrete numbers, Teton County Attorney Steve Weichman said it does seem like the lion’s share of the cases that originate in bars and involve criminal charges are coming from the tavern.
“That bar has certainly contributed to our caseload in the last couple of years,” Weichman said.

An analysis of police calls from May 1, 2009, to June 15 shows the tavern has the highest number of calls for batteries and the second highest number of calls for disturbances and public intoxication compared with town establishments such as the Million Dollar Cowboy Bar, the Virginian Saloon and 43 North. The Virginian was the only establishment with calls for assault during that time period.

The tavern has the second-highest number of total calls, with about 30 fewer than the Virginian. From May 1, 2009, to June 15, police have had 161 calls for service at the Virginian’s address, 750 W. Broadway, between the hours of 4 p.m. and 3 a.m. Police had 131 calls to the tavern’s address, 20 E. Broadway.

The number of calls to the Virginian likely is higher because several businesses, including the saloon, the lodge and the restaurant, all operate under the same address, Jackson police Sgt. Cole Nethercott said.

Nethercott also said he would expect to see more calls to downtown establishments such as the tavern and Cowboy simply because there’s more people in that area.

Tavern co-owner Mike Mattheis said Tuesday that his staff isn’t afraid to call police, which may be one reason for the bar’s call volume. When employees have called police, officers have done a “great job,” he said.

“Whenever we’ve called, they have been very responsive, they’ve been very helpful,” Mattheis said.

He admitted the crowd tends to be younger at the tavern than other late-night bars, but he wasn’t sure if that has anything to do with the tavern’s number of serious calls.

Cowboy commended

Jackson Police Chief Todd Smith said he wasn’t surprised by the data and commended the Cowboy Bar for its number of false identification calls during the past year.

“There is something to be learned from what the Cowboy Bar is doing,” Smith said.

Of a total of 107 calls from the Cowboy, 19.6 percent were for false IDs. By comparison, false ID calls accounted for 7.7 percent of calls at 43 North and 3.8 percent of calls for the tavern. The Virginian had no calls for false IDs.

Such calls show bar employees are taking a proactive approach to potential problems, officials said.

“Those are gold stars for the bar,” Weichman said. “Those are good calls.”

Though the Cowboy might have presented challenges for law enforcement in decades past, general manager John Davis’ positive influence is obvious, Weichman said.

“For so long now they’ve just been this great place,” he said. “They really work with law enforcement well, and they seem to keep their patrons orderly.”

Davis said the Cowboy gets a lot of people who attempt to use a false ID.

“We call the police for things like that, which we’re supposed to,” Davis said.

Of its 107 calls, the Cowboy had one for battery. It had 11 for disturbances, or about 10.3 percent of total calls.

Staff members don’t necessarily call police before things get out of hand, but they do watch out for people who get too drunk, he said.

“If somebody is getting really drunk, we’ll find out who they’re with and call a cab for them so everybody can have a good time and nobody gets in trouble,” Davis said.

Some patrons get belligerent, but 99 percent of the time staff is able to get them to leave, Davis said.

“Usually you can talk some sense into them,” he said.

The Cowboy generally sees a diverse crowd. Skiers in winter tend to be younger than summer tourists, he said.

The Virginian had two calls for assault and four calls for battery, accounting for 1.2 percent and 2.5 percent of its total calls, respectively. Virginian Saloon manager Max Anderson was on vacation, and lodge staff did not return calls seeking comment.

Cases linked to tavern

The tavern had six battery and 25 disturbance calls during the past year, which accounted for about 4.5 percent and 19 percent of its total calls, respectively.

However, the data reflects only what police were called to the address for and not necessarily what occurred, police said.

For example, Wilson resident Brent Owen suffered more than 20 facial fractures and bleeding on the brain after a fight that stemmed from a disagreement near a shuffleboard table in the tavern, court records say. The call appears as a medical assist in police records, and the fight happened in the alley behind the bar.

Jackson resident Anders Rae, 26, was charged in December with felony aggravated assault and battery in connection with the case. He has pleaded not guilty and is awaiting trial.

Other serious cases that have originated at the tavern during the past year include the following:

• Jeffery Wunsch, 30, of Jackson, was sentenced in November to five years of supervised probation for firing a gun in front of the tavern in June after a dispute over a poker game escalated. Wunsch pleaded guilty to felony possession of a deadly weapon with unlawful intent and misdemeanor breach of peace.

• Nathan Flambouras, 29, of Bend, Ore., was charged with felony aggravated assault and battery in May. A witness told police he and several other people restrained Flambouras after Flambouras slammed a pint glass into the side of another man’s head, court records allege. Flambouras has not yet entered a plea.

• Paul Vinesett, 44, of Jackson, was charged with misdemeanor battery in May. Vinesett is accused of repeatedly hitting another man during a dispute in the tavern, causing injuries that required medical attention. Vinesett has an arraignment hearing set for Thursday in 9th Circuit Court.

• Jared Moore, 25, of Jackson, was charged this month with misdemeanor battery and interference in what police described as a brawl outside the tavern. An officer working patrol alone June 11 determined Moore was the main aggressor in a fight that involved as many as eight people at once, police said. Moore also has an arraignment hearing set for Thursday in circuit court.

Mattheis said that in the future, he plans to continue to work with staff to recognize disputes before they occur.

“The other thing is we continue to try and not let people who are overly intoxicated come from other bars into our bar, because it doesn’t do anyone any good,” he said.

Tavern not unique

The highest number of disturbance calls were at 43 North, where they made up 42.3 percent of total calls during the past year. Police said most of those calls occurred on nights when the establishment, which is in a residential area off Snow King Avenue, hosted live music.

Richie Billingham, managing partner at 43 North, said new ownership took over the establishment in April and replaced the bar with a lounge area.

“We won’t be carrying live music anymore, so I’m not anticipating any police calls,” Billingham said. “We don’t cater to the late-night drinking crowd at all.”

The Virginian had the highest number of public intoxication calls, followed closely by the tavern and then the Cowboy. Of the Virginian’s 161 calls since May 2009, 14.9 percent were for public intoxication. That compares with 13 percent at the tavern and 11.2 at the Cowboy.

Weichman and police both said the tavern isn’t unique in the challenges it presents to law enforcement.

“I think that almost every bar has had its season in the sun, and the current epicenter for serious calls seems to be the Town Square Tavern,” Weichman said. “I expect that to change because of how many other establishments held that distinction in the past.”