Bars

Gone are the red carpet and the luxury accommodations, at least for a while. Film director Roman Polanski will probably remain in prison for several months as he fights deportation to the U.S. in a three-decade-old sexual assault case. His Swiss attorney, one of the country's top criminal lawyers, filed a request in court today that Polanski be set free while his extradition case winds its way through the judicial system. But such releases are rare for nonresidents in Switzerland, who are generally deemed to be flight risks.

The owner of Crazy Jack's Country Bar & Grill in Burbank pleaded not guilty Friday to violating the state's ban on smoking in restaurants and bars, becoming the first bar owner in Los Angeles County to challenge the 4-month-old law in court. Jack Tavares was arraigned in Municipal Court for an infraction of the state law, a category of offense less serious than a misdemeanor and punishable by, at most, a few hundred dollars in fines.

Around 1:30 a.m. last Sunday morning, Toast Boyd took what may have been the last stage dive at Al's Bar. Boyd, the music booker for the seminal West Coast punk club, had jumped on stage to play bass with the Warlocks, a garage rock band whose bassist hadn't shown up. She didn't know the song, so she faked it, then departed the stage in classic Al's Bar style--with a flying leap. "It's tragic that Al's is closing," Boyd said later.

Craby Joe's bar was known as a dive for cheap, bottom-shelf liquor and peeling faux-wood on downtown's South Main Street. It closed two years ago after it was made famous by author Charles Bukowski and infamous by former Los Angeles City Atty. Rocky Delgadillo, whose office called the place a magnet for "rock cocaine sales." If Craby Joe's reflected a troubled old downtown, a developer is proposing a bar at the site that would reflect the gentrified downtown of lofts, boutique hotels and night life.

LINCOLN HEIGHTS A bar in Lincoln Heights was closed by the state Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control on Thursday as part of a crackdown on alcohol-related crime in the neighborhood, officials said. The Mi Barra bar at 128 N. San Fernando Road was closed after agents found women asking men to buy them drinks at inflated prices, later splitting the profits with the establishment. Agents acted after receiving complaints from residents.

The owner of a Pacoima bar failed to prove that zoning conditions imposed by the city to clamp down on public drunkenness and other problems would economically strangle her business. During a hearing Tuesday before the city Board of Zoning Appeals, attorney Enrique Bin argued that Juana Bautista Tello, owner of the El Capri, could not afford to hire a security guard or limit the hours of operation.

An upscale sports bar has won approval to open at a Beach Boulevard location that formerly housed Texas Loosey's Chili Parlor & Saloon, an establishment gutted by fire two years ago. After receiving assurance that the MVP Sports Grill would not feature adult entertainment, the City Council voted unanimously this week to allow the business to locate at 14160 Beach Blvd.

Police said Monday that they are searching for any women who may have been attacked at a popular Pier Avenue bar whose general manager has been arrested on suspicion of raping two female customers. Nicholas Temkey, a 31-year-old Lawndale resident employed at the Beach Club, is being held on $100,000 bail for two counts of rape by force, violence or fear of immediate bodily injury, said Hermosa Beach Police Sgt. Paul A. Wolcott. Temkey pleaded not guilty to the charges in an arraignment Monday.

A federal judge Monday blocked California from cutting in-home care for 130,000 elderly and disabled state residents whose services would have been reduced or eliminated Nov. 1. U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken in Oakland issued a preliminary injunction against $82.1 million in cuts, siding with the plaintiffs' argument in a class-action lawsuit that the state's method of determining whose services would be affected was unfair. "We're very relieved," said Melinda Bird, senior counsel for Disability Rights California and an attorney in the case.