San Gabriel Valley : Police, Alcohol Board Shut Down El Monte Bar

The doors are shut at Mr. J’s in El Monte and the beer will flow no more after state and local officials revoked the bar’s liquor license Wednesday, citing a long history of crime at the site and repeated code violations.

El Monte police and state Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control agents slapped a revocation notice on the East Valley Boulevard bar they say has been the scene of two murders and the subject of 225 police calls in the past five years.

“The problems with this bar over the years have been so numerous virtually every El Monte police officer and ABC official in the district is familiar with it,” said ABC district administrator Rick Henry. “It was time to revoke the license. The El Monte Police Department has better things to do than go to Mr. J’s every Friday and Saturday night.”

Despite repeated attempts since 1982 to get the bar owners to comply with state and city laws, the bar continued to violate fire and safety regulations, noise rules and bans on lewd conduct, Henry said.

The owners of Mr. J’s El Monte Inc., named by ABC officials as Quei-Fhin and Fhyr-Jin Tsay, did not return calls.

“This bar was a serious drain on our resources,” said El Monte Police Deputy Chief Bill Ankeny. In 1990, a 19-year-old woman was murdered after she was kidnapped from its parking lot. Two years before that a man was shot to death, he said.