Nashville North License On Hold, Pending Investigation
On May 7th 2024 Nashville North had their Licensing Hearing to renew their Entertainment and Food Dealer License and change their business hours. Nashville North’s License expires May 14th 2024. Due to the release of NSM’s investigative article back in July 2023, the NSM journalist was requested to appear at this hearing and give testimony to the undercover investigation NSM conducted for that article.
Watch the (edited) hearing here: https://youtu.be/7Zgqgm0jsP0
Read the article here: https://neverstopvoices.com/blogs/news/milwaukees-nashville-nightmare
Normally NSM investigates Civil Rights Issues and Corruption Within Systems but in this case after a confidential source came forward, NSM agreed to investigate extremely serious allegations of Sexual Harassment towards the female staff.
Read NSM’s Follow Up Article Here: https://neverstopvoices.com/blogs/news/popular-milwaukee-bar-faces-losing-their-license
NSM filed multiple open records requests with City Hall, an alderman and the Milwaukee Police Department to make sure to obtain as much detailed information as possible and made sure those records were forwarded to the Committee members prior to today’s hearing. Initially as part of the record there was only a 28-page report, most of which contained screenshots of the original NSM article, a noise complaint and a report of an Underage Tavern Check conducted by the MPD where Nashville North failed to ID a minor police aide who was never ID’d by security or the bartender and was able to order an alcoholic beverage. The MPD Officer in attendance at the meeting, only referenced the noise complaint and the Underage Tavern Check fail.
Not once during the hearing was there any mention of the 96 pages and other reports that NSM had emailed to the Committee, that detailed complaints, theft, battery, gun related threats, underage drinking and one of those PDF files was the CAD reports from Milwaukee Police Department, which alone is 73 pages that add credibility to most of the allegations that NSM wrote about. 73 pages that were not included initially for this hearing because none of the alderman could be bothered to make a simple request for records to look into whether anything NSM wrote about was true or not back in 2023.
73 pages that detail, battery incidents, security confiscating real IDs from patrons, noise complaints, multiple threats to shoot up Nashville North, patrons assaulted by Nashville North staff, underage drinking complaints, intoxicated drivers leaving the premises, 73 pages and 49 calls generated since Nashville North opened in 2022. It was extremely concerning that the Committee labeled official police documents as “hearsay” and told the NSM journalist that “hearsay” was not allowed to be taken into consideration. Now, anyone with any real law background can see that nowhere in the NSM statement was a “hearsay” statement made.
Marsh stated that after the failed ID check that there was an “all staff meeting to do better on ID checks and now they use the ID scanner all the time”. Marsh claims that underage patrons are allowed into Nashville North, but only “with a parent”. The bartender who failed the ID check Marsh stated is still employed “with a warning”. Marsh claims to take “liquor liability very seriously”. Alderman Brostaff questioned Marsh on the noise complaints and Marsh claimed he was unaware of noise complaints and even blamed the noise complaints on establishments further down Brady St. Brostaff stated he was only aware of noise complaints and nothing else pertaining to the NSM article and that it would be hard to cover up such serious allegations as these for so long.
Well, Alderman Brostaff, it’s because the frat party doesn’t start until 10pm when most people in their 40’s and 50’s wouldn’t walk into Nashville North, nor would the general public have seen what happens behind closed doors if NSM hadn’t published the article.
Marsh stated in his verbal statement that he was the “agent” on the Nashville North License as well as (6) different Charcoal Grill locations in (6) different municipalities and “agent” on the Licenses for Summerfest and the State Fair. Marsh labeled the NSM journalist a “disgruntled employee” and claims that 85% of the article written was “false and misleading”, and the other 15% is true, including the “We The People” tattoo that he was proud to mention and the fact they use “Sweet Baby Ray’s Nashville Hot Sauce on several of their products”. In the original article NSM alleged that Nashville North promised the public signature sauces specific to Nashville North. In his own statement he verified sauces are not signature to Nashville North but to a far more reputable brand.
Marsh stated that Nashville North has been inspected by the Milwaukee Health Department and received a grade A rating which they display in their window. NSM is still waiting for Health Department records for Nashville North and all (6) Charcoal Grill locations that have been in business for 32 years.
Marsh stated that they use the TokenWorks ID scanner which helps detect fake ID’s. He held up what he alleges were over (100) fake ID’s confiscated in the last year due to using the TokenWorks ID scanner and offered to drop off all of the ID’s to the Milwaukee Police Department to verify if in fact the ID’s were fake or what NSM claimed were not put into the ID scanner which keeps a database of all ID’s scanned “if there ever was an incident”. What is interesting about this statement is that in the incidents of “personal property theft” that two of the bartenders experienced when their belongings were stolen by patrons, the ID scanner was not used and a third incident from a patron having their property stolen where Nashville North did not provide any video footage to help the patron recover their property. There were also several complaints of patrons real ID's being confiscated by security where the patron had to call law enforcement to intervene and get their ID's back.
January 29th 2023 a customer of Nashville North had their purse, jacket, wallet and debit cards stolen.
May 12th 2023 a male bartender, Jason Bonow called MPD and reported his gloves, wallet and keys were stolen by a patron. Bonow stated there was security footage of the incident.
On July 1st 2023 a female bartender, Alexis Schnitzler called MPD and stated her car keys and wallet were stolen, and there is camera footage of this incident which NSM showed screenshots of in the original article. In both incidents the ID scanner that has a database of all ID’s scanned, was not used by security or by bartenders like Marsh claimed.
Marsh stated that as for any claims of sexual harassment, they have a very strict sexual harassment policy that all employees are “required to read and sign” and if any sexual harassment is happening “to let him know and he would take appropriate steps”. Marsh claims to run a “safe and fun environment” at Nashville North. The Committee requested a copy of the sexual harassment policy to be sent to them. When asked if there were any sexual harassment claims brought to his attention, Marsh said there were not.
Let’s dive into this a bit deeper for a moment. NSM wrote specifically in the original article about the Sound Engineer, Matt Campbell sexually harassing the female staff as well as the NSM journalist. Multiple female staff reported the incidents to Jeff Marsh, Taggart Marsh, and Don Woppert both prior to NSMs investigation and during the four months NSM was undercover. None of the female staff felt safe in the building alone with Campbell, especially on Sunday’s when a female bartender and Campbell would be alone to open the bar. Pictures and Video were taken by the NSM journalist of Matt Campbell sending videos of himself masturbating while on company time. Managers Don Woppert and Jake Garncarz also witnessed what was left open on the Nashville North company computer from Campbell's Facebook Messanger.
Marsh got personal with the NSM journalist and attacked his credibility being a “disgruntled employee” and criminal and stated the article is “false”. In a document sent to the Committee, Marsh stated that the NSM journalist was a known agitator during the 2020 Kenosha Unrest.
Once in receipt of this document NSM fired back in an email giving Marsh (48) hours to retract his statement or face legal consequences for defamation. Immediately after the Licensing Hearing after Marsh heard the NSM statement, an email was sent where two other alderman were copied on, and Marsh in a very simple statement wrote “Gentlemen I retract my statement that Kevin was an agitator during the Kenosha riots”.
It’s comical to me that people always try to attack me personally or bring up some old news of a person that I’m not anymore and haven’t been for a decade, and make allegations that have no factual basis, but yet they can never attack my journalism because I always back up what I report with documents, audio, or video and I have never lost.
When the Committee asked Marsh about his son Taggart who is also acting Asst. General Manager operating Nashville North while he was under 21 years old, Marsh said Taggart was running the bar prior to turning 21. Marsh, like all fathers, denied allegations that Taggart was drinking underage in the bar and denied that Taggart brought in his underage friends, but later stated those friends were “with their parents”. When asked by the Committee if Marsh would have the parents of the underage friends file written affidavits with the Committee, Marsh responded that he would supply those.
The Committee did not grant the approval of the License for Nashville North, but instead gave them a provisional license pending a more thorough investigation due to the seriousness of the allegations written and testified to by the NSM journalist.
In multiple portions during the hearing Marsh, who was sworn under oath blatantly lied to the Committee regarding several incidents that have occurred at Nashville North and that 85% of the article written by NSM was false. Careful, Jeff, exposing lies and cover-up is exactly what NSM specializes in. It is going to be very interesting to see how many people are willing to lie under oath facing penalties to help Jeff Marsh cover his never-ending series of lies and the horrible atmosphere in Nashville North that he is so desperately trying to protect at this point. Normally NSM would just release an article in order for the public to be informed and take action should they choose. Don't worry Jeff Marsh NSM is going to gift wrap all of the illegal activity that has gone on in Nashville North to all of the members of the Milwaukee City Council, The Mayor's Office, The City Attorney and the Milwaukee Police Department. As stated in an email to Jeff Marsh from NSM when Marsh was given an opportunity to correct any "false statements" NSM made in the article "Please keep in mind that we do our due diligence very thoroughly before releasing an investigative article by gathering as much information as possible via documents, video, pictures, audio, text messages, on camera interviews and statements from witnesses depending on the type of article written. Unfortunately not all of those things can be included into the articles but are archived for times when NSM is accused of writing false statements. NSM investigations and articles get used in State and Federal Cases because we heavily document and make sure if we are called as a witness we can provide the most accurate information".
Who was the criminal today Jeff? Character Counts…..
This is an ongoing story and NSM will continue to cover it
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