Racks to Keep Retail Liquor License

At the Natrona County Commissioner meeting on Monday, the Board of County Commissioners voted to deny the transfer of the retail liquor license from CC Cowboys, owner of Racks, to Monty Elliot as part of a partial summary judgement.

Get our free mobile app

Commissioner Jim Milne said the rationale for denying the transfer was because where the liquor license would be transferred to would impact the people living in that area due to liquor now being sold there.

"I would make a motion to deny the transfer for ownership of the full retail liquor license based on that the transfer be adversely affect the welfare of the people residing in the vicinity of the proposed license address."

The liquor license transfer was originally supposed to take place at the commissioner meeting on August 17.

However, after both Stephen Winship, Elliot's lawyer in his case against CC Cowboys, and Keith Nachbar, lawyer for Linlog, which rents the building to CC Cowboys, presented their arguments to the commission, the board determined that they would need more time to assess all the details of the case.

Commissioner Rob Hendry said that while the continued operation of Racks was the main reason they denied the transfer, they also thought that the judge's order transferring the license was "not explicit enough" and that they would prefer to not get in the middle of the case between Elliot and Sonny Pilcher until it has wound its way through the courts.

Winship said that he is hoping to speak with Eric Nelson, the county attorney, to get more details about why the transfer was denied, and that if it is the case that the transfer order was not clear enough, he would be willing go back to the judge to get a more direct statement.

The judge in this case, District Court judge Daniel Forgey, signed an order on April 12, 2021, approving partial summary judgement, and stated, in part, that:

"13. Elliot has previously obtained judgement herein against CCCI on June 5, 2020, and therefore pursuant to Wyo. Stat. Ann. § 34-14-208(b) and the above findings, the liquor license attached hereto as Exhibit 1 is hereby set over and transferred to Elliot. 14. Blakes are hereby ordered to promptly execute any and all documents reasonably required by the Natrona County Commissioners and/or the Wyoming Department of Revenue Liquor Division to facilitate the transfer of the liquor license."

Blakes refers to Arta and John Blake, Arta being Pilcher's sister, who were supposed to at one point have been transferred ownership of CC Cowboys while Pilcher was in prison.

But based on the partial summary judgement, the Blakes never received ownership of CC Cowboys, which Nachbar argued at the August 17 meeting meant that they didn't have the authority to transfer the liquor license.