The owner of the Ropewalk Tavern on Main Street in Bel Air said he is appealing a five-day suspension of his liquor license and a $4,000 fine imposed last week by the Harford County Liquor Control Board.

The board said the popular bar had overserved already-drunk patrons, contributing to fights Dec. 22 and Dec. 28 that required police intervention.

Attorney Dan Earnshaw said he has filed an appeal on behalf of the Ropewalk and its owner, Marc McFaul. “They’re sandbagging us,” Earnshaw said. He said the board’s leadership offered McFaul a “deal” in order to settle the case, but reneged after the deal was accepted.

In a letter to liquor board inspector C. F. “Mac” McWilliams dated March 19, Earnshaw outlined the deal that he advised McFaul to accept.

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“You proposed that if Ropewalk were to agree not to contest the December 22nd and 28th, 2006 charges, the liquor board would dismiss the remaining charges and impose a penalty of a fine only,” Earnshaw wrote, also indicating that McWilliams approached McFaul with this agreement “as an intermediary for the [board] chairman.”

Earnshaw said that shortly before the liquor board issued its ruling last week, he received a call from the board’s office secretary informing him that McWilliams and the board’s chairman did not have the authority to make such a deal. “Maybe that’s what they assumed, but I am telling you I cannot make a deal regarding penalties,” Chairman Donald Hess said. “There is no way I would agree to let’s do this or let’s do that.”

McWilliams did not return messages left for him at the board’s Bel Air office.

“I would have to close,” McFaul said of the suspension, which was scheduled to start April 23 before Earnshaw appealed the decision. “I don’t make any money on food. It has to be a combination of the two.”

Hess said the liquor board’s decision will be stayed until a county judge can hear the appeal.

mplum@baltimoreexaminer.com