Troubles Continue For Popular East El Paso Bar

You can add a police raid to the long list of troubles for a popular Eastside bar. On Wednesday, employees at the 3 Legged Monkey were hit with eight citations. The owner, Mike Armstrong, said he intends to fight every single one of them.

“This is hard earned tax payer dollars spent to come in with a force that looks intimidating and excessive,” Armstrong said.

So far, the city has spent nearly $170,000 dollars of taxpayer money to respond to concerns centered around the bar. Armstrong said that is a waste of money and the recent raid is a waste of time.

“They basically came up to my customers and ID’d every single one of them, asking customers in the parking lot how much have they had to drink, who was serving them, how long they’ve been there,” Armstrong said. “Just unnecessary tactics.”

Exclusive video of 18 officers shows them making their way inside the sparsely-filled bar Wednesday night. Police later took employees into a back office and handed down a total of eight citations. Officers cited six employees for not having a food handlers card and two employees for not having a TABC certification card.

“Every single one of my employees has those cards and those charges will be dismissed,” Armstrong said.

Police officials said the raid comes after two assaults at the bar earlier in the week, but that is news to the bar’s owner.

“There’s no assaults at my establishments so I have no idea what they’re talking about,” Armstrong said. “If the spotlight is on us a little brighter, it only shows the fact that we don’t have any citations or violations. Any allegations that have been brought forward have been dismissed.”

Just a few weeks ago the TABC allowed Armstrong to renew his liquor license. The owner says despite all of the problems he’s encountered with the city, they have yet to find any wrongdoing.