Secretive Cops-Only Bar Blamed For Multiple DUIs After Drunk-Driving Cop Hits House, Killing 2 Dogs

At least in theory, cops aren't supposed to be allowed to break the law whenever they feel like it. There aren't supposed to be two tiers of justice. Unfortunately for all of us, though, that's not always what happens. Nothing may illustrate that more clearly than the Philadelphia Inquirer's latest investigation into a secretive cops-only bar that served as one off-duty officer's last stop on February 6, 2021, before he drunkenly crashed his car into one unsuspecting couple's house, injuring them both, sending one woman to the hospital as a result of her injuries, and killing both of her dogs. 

If there's any good news in a tragedy like that, it's that Anna Wakeman survived Officer Gregory Campbell drunkenly crashing his 2014 Dodge Dart into her living room and that Campbell was arrested, charged, fired, and ultimately found guilty. At the time, the case received a lot of attention, especially after it was revealed that Campbell's BAC was 0.23, and a subsequent lawsuit accused him of consuming "as many as 20 alcoholic beverages" before the crash. But what bar would serve someone 20 drinks in one night, much less let them try to drive home after?

Allegedly, Campbell visited multiple bars that night, but he did most of his drinking at the the 7C Lounge, an establishment the Inquirer describes as "a members-only club for active and retired cops operated by the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 5, inside the union's headquarters." And would you believe me if I told you Campbell's arrest isn't the only time a DUI has been linked back to the sketchy private bar that only serves cops?

Before the Inquirer could dig into the 7C Lounge's shady history, though, there was already plenty of sketchy behavior related to Campbell's arrest. As the Inquirer wrote:

Records show that after crashing into the Wakeman house — and while it was still unclear whether Anna Wakeman had survived — Campbell was allowed to confer with FOP representatives and delay a blood-alcohol test for nearly six hours.

The delay was an apparent violation of Pennsylvania law, which requires suspected drunk drivers to undergo testing within two hours of being behind the wheel unless good cause is given. The records include no explanation for the delay.

An officer in the police department's Crash Investigation District later testified in a deposition that he had never before encountered a person accused of driving under the influence who was allowed to seek guidance from his labor union before undergoing blood testing.

So yeah, remember that part where Campbell's BAC was 0.23? That test was only administered after he'd had six whole hours to sober up. According to one toxicologist's estimate, Campbell likely had a BAC north of 0.35 when he got behind the wheel, which would have been more than four times the legal limit. The Wakemans then sued Campbell, as well as the 7C Lounge, and Lodge 5, claiming the bar had overserved him, and the FOP was responsible. 

They also brought in an expert for the lawsuit, a former police officer and longtime investigator for the New Jersey Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control, who wrote in his report that the 7C Lounge staff's "actions and inactions were negligent and reckless" and said they "contributed directly to the accident, damages and injuries sustained by the Wakeman family." And yet, despite all the evidence that the 7C Lounge wildly overserved Campbell, there were reportedly no consequences for doing so. In fact, as far as the city of Philadelphia is concerned, it still has a spotless track record. 

As Paul Herron, a Philadelphia lawyer who's also an expert on liquor licenses and enforcement, told the Inquirer, that's not how things are supposed to work. The Pennsylvania State Police Bureau of Liquor Control Enforcement has "very stringent requirements" that make it difficult for even the most respectable establishments to avoid earning at least a few violations. Campbell "had consumed monumental amounts of liquor, and for that to just not show up anywhere is awfully strange," Herron told the paper. "I would expect that if this happened to another place, that this would come to light, to the knowledge of the bureau, and they would ultimately issue a citation."

But while the BLCE may have chosen not to cite the 7C Lounge for overserving Campbell, the Inquirer's investigation also turned up a separate incident from 2021 that the BCLE never even heard about — because the FOP never reported it. Footage shared with the Inquirer from Nov. 22, 2021, showed someone leaving the 7C Lounge, getting into the driver's seat of a small crossover, and then hitting a truck with enough force push it into the car behind it. They then reversed again, drove around the truck they hit, ran over two orange cones, crashed through a fence, and drove off. 

While a police spokesperson told the Inquirer they had no record of the crash, "[a] source with firsthand knowledge of the incident" told the paper that Roosevelt Poplar, who is now the president of the local FOP and at the time served as then-president John McNesby's chief of staff, saw the video and even took notes on the damage. Why such a respectable, upstanding member of society would choose not to report a possible DUI hit-and-run that caused so much damage, though, no one can possibly say.

Because cops are in charge of enforcing liquor laws, they typically aren't allowed to own bars, and Pennsylvania is no different — police officers are ineligible to hold liquor licenses. But the FOP's Home Association is technically a nonprofit and considered a "catering club" under state law, which makes the 7C Lounge eligible for a liquor license. "The cops can drink as much as they want there," Anna Wakeman told the Inquirer. "The bartenders serve them till they're blackout drunk and let them leave."

Considering the fact that a drunk cop leaving the 7C Lounge ran her over in her own home and nearly killed her, you can probably understand Wakeman's frustration. But it's even more understandable when you learn that's not the only time she's had to deal with drunk cops causing property damage after a night at the 7C. Less than two years earlier, in April 2019, Damien Walto, a former Philadelphia cop who had been fired from the force back in 2010 and served a short prison sentence for assaulting a woman while off-duty, left the 7C Lounge where he worked as a DJ, and crashed his GMC Envoy into Wakeman's Chevrolet Equinox parked in her driveway, pushing it into Raymond's parked Silverado:

The Wakemans watched Walto stumble out of his Envoy, dazed and disoriented, then stagger along the sidewalk while clutching an Easter basket.

...

Walto returned to his GMC and fumbled with a screwdriver in an attempt to remove an FOP-marked license plate from his SUV, the Wakemans said. He toppled over and the license plate remained in place, they said.

Walto said he was not trying to hide his link to the police union. "My tag fell off and I was trying to put it back on," he said.

Police officers arrived at the scene and noted that Walto appeared to be under the influence of drugs or alcohol. They arrested him, and medics transported him to the hospital for chest pain, according to a police report. There is no mention in the report of Walto having suffered a head injury.

While you aren't supposed to drive drunk, much less crash while driving drunk, Walto reportedly had another reason he may have tried to avoid taking responsibility for that particular crash. Turns out, at the time he allegedly drunkenly crashed into the Wakemans' cars, he was also facing a separate DUI charge in nearby Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. In August of that year, he pleaded guilty and was sentenced to up to six months in prison but was reportedly released after only 72 hours. In a similar stroke of pure luck, Walto's Philadelphia DUI case was later dismissed.

If you're thinking someone should probably take a closer look at the 7C Lounge and all the drunk cops that keep crashing when they leave, you aren't alone. And yet, the bar still (officially, at least) sports a spotless record. The BLCE also declined to comment when the Inquirer reached out asking whether or not it had opened an investigation. If it hasn't, maybe a little national pressure can help move things along, because you don't have to be an industry professional to get the sense there's something sketchy going on here. 

"The more accidents that result from serving alcohol at any bar, owned by the police union or anyone else, the more the public would be ordinarily concerned about the continuing operations of that establishment," Mark Carter, an employer-side labor attorney and U.S. Chamber of Commerce's Labor Relations Committee member, told the Inquirer. "Here, you've articulated a pattern of behavior that would create a legitimate interest by the city or the prosecutor's office about the continuing operations of that establishment."

There's also much more to the Inquirer's investigation that would ever be fair to summarize here, so you'll want to give the whole thing a read here. It'll probably send your blood pressure through the roof, but these days, what news report doesn't? Also, if you live in Philadelphia, you can always contact Mayor Cherelle Parker's office to let her know about your concerns. I'm sure she'd love to hear from you.