The Borough Council’s trial-like hearing on a series of seven allegations against the liquor license of Best Liquors has been postponed for a month, according to today’s Asbury Park Press.

The reason: store owner Sunny Sharma’s hiring of a new lawyer, Mitchell Ansell. Word of the new counsel reached borough officials Monday, and they agreed that Ansell should have time to prepare his defense against the allegations, which include five counts of selling liquor to minors.

From the article:

“The party in the case just reached us and asked us for an adjournment,” Mayor Edward J. McKenna Jr. said. “I’d ask we grant that adjournment so we can afford him due process.”

No firm date for the trial was reported, but Borough Attorney Thomas Hall told the Press that it would probably be in the first or second week of January, if that fits into the council’s schedule.

Separately, some of the disorderly persons offenses that form the basis of the borough’s liquor license review are pending in municipal court. No word on whether those matters are still scheduled to be heard later this month.

Best Liquors has been the target of a campaign by residential neighbors to have the business shut down as a public nuisance for litter, noise, prostitution and other woes. The residents contend the problems would not exist without the store.

Sharma, on the other hand, claims he’s doing everything he can to mitigate the problems, which he says are beyond his control.

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