PEABODY - A Foster Street bar police consider a chronic trouble spot had its liquor license suspended for five days as of last night. The penalty stems from Peabody officers being unable to respond to a disturbance at the Tanner's Cafe because the door was locked.

Patrolman Sean Dowd told the city's Licensing Board it took two to three minutes before someone opened the bar's door shortly before 1 a.m. on Oct. 28. When he and a fellow officer did get inside, they found a crowd of about 30 patrons that Dowd described as "uncooperative" and "somewhat hostile."

When the officers told the crowd it was time to go, a patron yelled out, "Why don't you go," Dowd said. The five cruisers on duty that Saturday night eventually responded to the scene.

Dowd and Lt. Scott Wlasuk said Tanner's Cafe owner Joe McCarthy didn't help quell the commotion that unfolded inside and outside on the sidewalk.

"He was several feet away at the bar cleaning up," Dowd told the board. "I don't know how he didn't hear what was going on."

"I told (McCarthy) it was apparent to me that the door was closed to prevent our officers from going inside," Wlasuk said.

When police first responded to a report of a disturbance, they found a "large gathering" on the sidewalk and the bar's door ajar. After dispersing the crowd outside, officers tried to enter but found the door locked.

"I was not aware the door had been shut," McCarthy told the board.

He had decided to close at 12:30 a.m. because he had "run out of money" and couldn't make change. McCarthy said he "pinned" the front door open and activated its "fire lock," which allows patrons to exit but not enter when the door is closed.

Licensing Board Chairman Minas Dakos said McCarthy was lucky police weren't prevented from breaking up a fight or something more serious inside the bar.

"God forbid something was going on inside and the police couldn't get in," he said.

No arrests were made, but police and board members were agitated that McCarthy wasn't more proactive in helping officers control and disperse the crowd.

"If I'm the owner, I'm going to be out there with the police making sure everything is cleared out. I'm not going to be behind the bar cleaning up at that point in time," Wlasuk said.

McCarthy said he didn't know there was a problem outside, and he wasn't sure if he had the legal right to disperse a crowd on a public sidewalk. He also said he wasn't aware that police had entered the bar.

"You had to have been deaf not to know I was there," Dowd said. "I made my presence known."

Police said they dispatched maximum force to the Tanner's Cafe because the establishment has had a history of problems. Over the last three years, Lt. Marty Cohan said the department has responded to 36 disturbance calls and eight noise complaints at the Foster Street property, which also houses apartments. Since the October incident, police have handled seven disturbance calls and one fight at the bar, according to Cohan.

"I don't know what, if anything, has been done to try to take control of the premises," he said.

Before its unanimous vote, the board said McCarthy needs to be more vigilant.

"When you run a business, you got to know what's going on," Charles Holden said. "You have a liquor license, you have got to control your premises."

Tanner's Cafe will serve the suspension during the school vacation week next month.

After the hearing, McCarthy declined to comment. His lawyer, Jack Keilty, said McCarthy would not appeal the suspension.