Pubdate: Thu, 28 Oct 1999 Source: Roanoke Times (VA) Copyright: 1999 Roanoke Times Contact: 201 W. Campbell Ave., Roanoke, Va. 24010 Website: http://www.roanoke.com/roatimes/index.html Author: Laurence Hammack, The Roanoke Times SIGN BROUHAHA BRINGS COURT TO BAR The regulars were huddled over their beers at a Williamson Road watering hole Wednesday afternoon when in walked a city judge, a legislator, an assistant attorney general and a sheriff's deputy. Once it became apparent this was neither a bust nor a scandal in the making, the regulars turned back to the bar. Which left the members of the other bar free to pursue their legal duties: Checking out the ambiance of W.R. Brews sports bar and its neon bar lights, the subject of long-standing litigation. More than two years ago, the state Alcoholic Beverage Control Board ordered bar owner William Kopcial to rid his establishment of the lighted displays that adorn the walls. The Miller High Life, the Red Dog, the Moosehead and the Bud Light lights all constitute illegal advertising, the ABC decreed. Not one to be denied his bar lights or constitutional rights, Kopcial filed a lawsuit. His petition asked Roanoke Circuit Court Judge Robert P. Doherty to reverse the board's ruling on the grounds that his beloved beer signs are in fact works of pop art, thus protected from government regulation. They may occupy a beer joint and not an art gallery, Kopcial contended, but his bar lights should nonetheless be given the same legal status as Andy Warhol's tomato soup can or Michelangelo's most famous sculpture. "Does the statute of David suddenly change its character if we put it down in W.R. Brews?" said Clifton "Chip" Woodrum, a state delegate from Roanoke and Kopcial's lawyer. "We would argue no." But if art is in the eye of the beholder as Woodrum said, the judge mused aloud from the bench, shouldn't he actually behold the art in question? Woodrum said he would be "happy as a hog in the water" to have everybody over. So as quick as the bailiff could say "Court stands in recess," Doherty, Woodrum and Assistant Attorney General Louis Matthews packed up their briefcases and hit the road to W.R. Brews. While Woodrum sipped a Coke, the others went drinkless in the search for justice. Legal documents in hand, Doherty compared photographs taken two years ago to the bar's current decor. Where did the Genuine Miller Draft lighted clock go? he wondered. "It burnt out," Kopcial replied matter - of - factly. And about this Latrobe Crafted Brews picture, the judge asked, do you sell that kind of beer here? "I've never even heard of it ," Kopcial said. "I just thought it was a pretty picture." But pretty pictures can run afoul of ABC regulations, which prohibit neon, lighted displays and other attention grabbers for any brand of beer sold at the bar in question. The reason for the law is twofold, Matthews explained: Unlimited advertising could give one beer distributor an unfair advantage over another . At the same time, he said, it also could encourage excessive drinking -- presumably by impressionable patrons basking in the glow of neon bar lights. Doherty said it will be another week or so before he rules. "I think going there brought it all into perspective," he said . Back at W.R. Brews, barstool judges Doug Horn and Jack Yeager, both regulars who sat quietly through Doherty's visit, had already reached their decisions. "I like the place," Yeager said. "It's not drab or anything." Horn scoffed at the ABC's logic as he surveyed the bar lights above him and the cold beer in front of him. "That sign doesn't mean nothing to me," he said. "I knew what I wanted when I came in here." - --- MAP posted-by: Derek Rea