Councilman Threatened With Arrest After Bounced From Area Bar

GASTONIA, N.C.,None — A Gastonia city councilman on Tuesday said he still doesn't understand why he was kicked out of a downtown Belmont bar and restaurant Friday night.

Keith Tidwell was not arrested or charged with a crime following the incident, which took place at the end of the city's popular Friday Night Live concert. But the commotion that followed his removal from Sammy's Neighborhood Pub drew a crowd and at one point involved Tidwell being detained against a wall by several law enforcement officers.

"Things got out of hand," said Tidwell, when asked about the disorder Tuesday. "But there wasn't nothing to it."

Belmont Police Chief Charlie Franklin said the heavy law enforcement presence had to do with the event that had been going on, as well as a misunderstanding about what the trouble at Sammy's involved.

"It was more or less a disagreement of some sort inside Sammy's," he said. "Afterward, the scene was cleared and (Tidwell) was asked to leave and not go back to Sammy's."

The Friday Night Live concert series, run by the Belmont Downtown Merchants Association, draws hundreds of people to Main Street every two weeks from 7 to 10 p.m. When the concert ends, many people flow into the handful of bars and restaurants that dot the thriving business district.

Belmont police officers staff the area as part of the department's regular duties, but the Merchants Association also hires off-duty officers to enhance event security.

Tidwell said he and his wife, Kim, had been out at Friday's concert. Shortly after its conclusion, they walked into Sammy's and were standing near the middle of the crowded bar as they waited for a table to open up.

Tidwell said he ordered a drink and planned on eating a club sandwich once they sat down.

"I had a ton of friends sitting all around me and I was talking to people," he said. "I know the waitresses there and they know me."

When he realized he and his wife had gotten separated, Tidwell began trying to find her. A waitress or hostess he did not know then asked if he was about to leave, he said.

"I said, ‘Why? I'm waiting on a table," he said. "I wasn't loud or nothing."

Tidwell said the next thing he knew, a bouncer was approaching and telling him he needed to leave. He said he protested and tried to get an explanation why, but was ushered outside without one.

A manager at Sammy's declined to comment on the incident Tuesday afternoon.

Franklin said police received a call at 10:30 p.m. about a civil disturbance in front of Sammy's that involved a fight. A number of officers quickly responded for that reason, he said, and they encountered Tidwell near the front door outside.

"There was some type of disagreement between him and some people inside," said Franklin. "They asked him to leave. He did not want to leave."

At one point, Tidwell was pulled to the side of the restaurant along Mill Street. Four officers restrained him and held his hands against the wall as a woman who identified herself as his wife approached and asked what was going on.

Officers soon determined there had been no confirmed assault of anyone, Franklin said. Two of them escorted Tidwell down Mill Street to his vehicle about 10:50 p.m.

"They advised him not to go back to Sammy's and that if he went back, he would be arrested for trespassing," Franklin said.

Tidwell said he was still hungry and he contemplated going somewhere else to eat downtown, but decided against it.

"I went on home," he said.

Tidwell was seeking his seventh two-year term on the City Council when he lost a re-election bid in 2003. But Gastonia voters put him back in office in Ward 1 in 2007, and he will be up for re-election again in November.

Tidwell said he'll have no reservations about returning to Sammy's some other time.

"I didn't see the big problem. I enjoy the place," he said. "Nobody ever asked me to leave and never come back."

WSOC