Dennis Skeen
Selling Jersey Dogs in Westport 2012
Saturday’s downtown sports bar rape story just keeps getting weirder…
For starters, turns out alleged rapist Dennis Skeen is married. Add to that, sources say that Skeen and his wife Michelle have been trying to buy Duke’s on Grand, the downtown bar where this sordid whole mess went down last weekend. On top of which, Duke’s liquor license has now expired – all of which may make it a cold day in hell before Duke’s reopens…if ever.
But before we delve into the particulars of those new details and more, let’s clear up some embarrassing misinformation put out earlier today by Kansas City Star columnist Mary Sanchez.
“Many will probably question what the woman was doing having drinks alone with a man after hours,” Sanchez wrote. “Maybe she was an employee. Maybe she was a customer. Maybe she was too gullible.”
Maybe Sanchez should have checked with police before she wrote her column.
Because according to Kansas City Police, the 23 year-old woman in question was indeed an employee of the downtown sports bar where the unseemly event went down. Nor was she having drinks alone with Skeen, as other Duke’s employees left the bar only minutes before the alleged assault took place.
And according to Kansas City Regulated Industries Skeen and his wife had been in negotiations to buy Duke’s from its owners.
Trouble is, Duke’s never responded to a notice late last year to renew its liquor license.
“That license expired March 31st,” confirms Regulated Industries main man Jim Ready. “And the grandfather period expired Monday. So they’re not going to have any (liquor) product delivered by any wholesalers. They’re on our cease sales list and they will not be open again until they get that resolved.”
Complicating things further, Duke’s allowed employees to drink at the club for nearly three hours after its legal closing time leading up to the unfortunate incident.
“That’s illegal,” Ready says. “It’s something our folks look for and that we do catch people doing.”
Turns out Skeen’s a fairly well-known dude in Westport where for more than a decade he sold hotdogs out of a cart and later a truck for a business he owned called Jersey Dogs.
“He always seemed like a pretty nice guy,” says a source. “I mean, he’s been dealing with the public in Westport for a long time and he’d be out there selling at 3:30 a.m. So he’s had lots of experience dealing with late night drunk and obnoxious people.”
Speaking of Duke’s liquor license, Sheen’s wife Michelle was spotted heading into Regulated Industries late this morning.
Back to you, Mary…
this is what we want…the “old” hearne on stories that are different.
by the way…how about the mission kanas dmv?
lots of old people went to a certain guy there so they would not have
to take eye test for license…….
everyone wants a piece of the pie!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1
First off, I’m not sure what you are getting at with all of this. Why is serving alcohol after hours the story and not the rape?
Second, you write: “Maybe Sanchez should have checked with police before she wrote her column. Because according to Kansas City Police, the 23 year-old woman in question was indeed an employee of the downtown sports bar where the unseemly event went down.”
Your column yesterday printed the rumor from an unnamed source that the victim is a 19 year old stripper. You didn’t give any credence to the rumor but why print it other than to add unfounded salacious details to a horrifying story? Did you check with the police before writing your story?
First of all (back at ya), it’s not a question of serving alcohol being THE story and rape not THE story…
Today’s followup simply provides more detail to something that’s been very lightly reported. And if you give it some further thought, you can see why serving alcohol after hours with a bunch of employees for nearly three hours adds to the weirdness and the illegality of this entire tawdry matter.
The rumor about the woman being 19 was up very briefly yesterday pending return calls from the police and Regulated Industries. It was quickly replaced with the woman’s correct age and the revelation that she was an employee.
If you don’t find news interesting Jimmy, perhaps you should avoid reading news stories. And yes, often times news stories quote sources saying what they have heard or believe to be the case.
My calls were placed well ahed of my story.
Sanchez had practically a week and still didn’t have a clue as to the fact that the woman worked there.
Allow me to give you a little advice: I’m going to flesh this story out a bit more Saturday. I suggest you avoid reading it, I don’t want to confuse you anymore than you already are
“If you don’t find news interesting Jimmy, perhaps you should avoid reading news stories.”
Avoid the news. Always solid advice. Now that the snark is out of the way…I didn’t write that it wasn’t interesting though I honestly wouldn’t call a rape investigation “interesting” regardless of what the facts may be. I consider rape to be a horrifying act and not “interesting.” What I did do was call into question what your focus was with this story. I also wondered why you added salacious details for no particular reason which, to be fair, I did not see that you changed before I wrote out my response.
“Allow me to give you a little advice: I’m going to flesh this story out a bit more Saturday. I suggest you avoid reading it, I don’t want to confuse you anymore than you already are”
It is not confusing and to suggest that I am confused about a pretty straight forward story is just unnecessary snark (and not particularly clever snark at that). The point is that you are reporting on a story about rape and the first article you printed added what amounts to gossip. That is what you printed before your sources called you back with the actual truth about her age and occupation. The second article criticized another journalist for printing a story without checking the source. That is pot and kettle stuff.
Hi, I’m the hot dog guy.
Six words no woman wants to hear, ever.
One woman heard those words and said, “I do,” dude…
Ewwww. Just ewwww.
This is Hearne’s wheelhouse.
Great article, which in fact, calls into question, what, we all thought were the facts.
Grazie mille
This story was on r/kansascity and people were most concerned that this was the jerkface who won’t give out extra napkins with the pizza slices.
Duke’s: The only place where your crazy bread has ground up benzos in it and the salad bar is just a old rusty bar in the back where that fat dude lays you over when passed out and tosses your salad.