Taneyhill testifies in Five Points neighbors case against Group Therapy

Group Therapy is part of the solution, not the problem, in Columbia’s Five Points neighborhood, owner Steve Taneyhill told an administrative court Wednesday.

Taneyhill, a former University of South Carolina quarterback, testified on the first day of a hearing into whether his bar’s liquor license will be revoked. The license is being challenged by Five Points neighbors in their latest effort to curb what they call a culture of underage drinking in Five Points.

The effort is led by state Sen. Dick Harpootllian, D-Richland. Already, at least four bars have closed, some voluntarily.

The Columbia Police Department and the University of South Carolina have formally and publicly opposed the bar’s liquor license.

But Tuesday, it was Taneyhill who testified before the court, highlighting several ways the bar has tried to crack down on underage drinking. For one, the company spends around $250 per month on the same type of scanners the Columbia Police Department uses to ferret out fake IDs, Taneyhill said. Though, while being cross-examined, he acknowledged there are times the scanners are not used and that the scanners may be used inconsistently depending on who is working.

Taneyhill pushed back on a key concern raised among critics of Five Points bars, that they perpetuate a culture of underage drinking.

At Group Therapy, “you could be sitting at the bar beside a 71-year-old or a 25-year old,” Taneyhill said.

Taneyhill pointed to other positives, such as Group Therapy raising $7,000 for the Special Olympics during the November Five Points Chili Cook Off. Another example, after the death of USC student Samantha Josephson last year, Taneyhill helped organize an initiative among Five Points bar owners called “Safe and Sound,” where bar employees escorted bar patrons to their ride home, he said.

Josephson was killed in spring 2019 after getting in a car she mistakenly thought was her Uber.

This week’s hearing is a clash of some of Columbia’s biggest personalities and institutions. Taneyhill was represented by former state representative and CNN Commentator Bakari Sellers. On the other side stood Harpootlian’s law firm, the ever-expanding USC and Columbia police.

Not even those involved in the case seemed able to resist the star power connected to this issue. At one point, Sellers read lyrics from “Hold my Hand” by Hootie & the Blowfish — a band so attached the Group Therapy they named a tour after the bar. Conversely, after Christopher Kenney of Harpootlian’s law firm finished grilling Tanneyhill on his business, the USC law school alum asked Tanneyhill for an autograph while Tanneyhill was still on the stand.

“Twenty-five bucks,” Tanneyhill joked.

Unlike other cases, Judge Shirley Robinson limited the case to whether Group Therapy was contributing to chaos in Five Points and sapping public resources. She did not allow the case to be about whether the establishment sold enough food to technically be called a restaurant.

Robinson said the court shouldn’t consider that information because the S.C. Department of Revenue had already decided Group Therapy met the qualifications for being a restaurant in compliance with state law. Under state law, only hotels and restaurants can have liquor licenses.

“Enforcement is the responsibility of the Department (of Revenue) and SLED,” Robinson said. “The citizens don’t have a right to bring enforcement” actions on liquor laws.

From April 2018 to April 2019, roughly 76 percent of Group Therapy’s $1.15 million annual revenue came from alcohol sales, according to documents presented during the trial.

“Is Group Therapy actually a restaurant?” Kenney said. “The establishment operates as a bar: lots of liquor, lots of beer, very little food.”

Sellers vouched for Taneyhill’s character and said Group Therapy was far more responsible than other bars in the area.

“We know there to be (other) bars in Five Points that don’t have kitchens,” Sellers said.

“What we have here is a group of people in the city of Columbia who have turned themselves into the fun police,” Sellers said.

The group representing Five Points neighbors cited a recent example involving SLED, as evidence to the contrary.

In September, a man who was working as a DJ for Group Therapy was cited by SLED agents for simple possession of marijuana in a locked “employees only” section of Group Therapy after someone had smoked, according to the DJ and a SLED agent.

Though that man was never an employee of Group Therapy, attorneys for the Five Points neighbors said it was an example of how they believe Group Therapy was complicit in bad behavior in the area. What’s more, the man who was cited for marijuana possession was under 21 years old, but was seen on camera with a drink in his hand, according to witness testimony and surveillance footage shown at the trial.

Wednesday, the attorneys representing Five Points neighbors will call their witnesses. Those will include Columbia Police Department Chief Skip Holbrook and USC Dean of Students Marc Shook, according to court documents.