BOSTON (WHDH) - Closed for months, the Sons of Boston pub near Faneuil Hall could soon reopen thanks to a decision by the state’s Alcohol Beverages Control Commission.
The bar on Union Street was forced to shutter in April 2022 after the City of Boston License Commission suspended its liquor license. The decision came weeks after one of the bar’s bouncers allegedly stabbed 23-year-old Daniel Martinez, a United States Marine, to death.
The incident occurred on March 19, when Martinez, a Chicago native, was in town visiting friends for St. Patrick’s Day at the time.
The bouncer, Alvaro Larrama, 38, was charged with murder while the marine’s family moved to sue the bar.
Nearly a year later, after Causeway Union LLC/Sons of Boston filed an appeal, the state’s Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission disapproved of the City of Boston Licensing Board’s decision to indefinitely suspend the bar’s license. The ruling was officially handed down on Tuesday, Jan. 31.
In it, citing testimony and evidence provided during a hearing, the commission said it found the “Local Board did not produce any direct evidence of violations” by Causeway Union LLC/Sons of Boston.
Among other factors, the commission noted that though it found police officials who testified to be credible, it found none were present “at the time of the conduct in question,” and that the Boston License Commission “offered three non-eyewitness police reports as its evidence but did not offer any competent evidence to corroborate these reports.”
“Even if the Commission found these police reports to have been corroborated, the Local Board did not introduce any evidence of the conduct of the Licensee,” the ruling read.
Following the 2022 stabbing, the city’s licensing board had found the Sons of Boston bar responsible for multiple violations that included “Failure to call police,” “Armed security without prior Board approval” and “Assault and battery employee on patron with deadly weapon.”
The city’s Office of Consumer Affairs and Licensing also suspended the bar’s entertainment license soon after the stabbing.
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