BAR BATTLE; OWNER GOES TO COURT OVER SMOKING LAW.

Byline: Eric Wahlgren Daily News Staff Writer

Despite the ashtrays and the smoke that fills Crazy Jack's Country Bar and Grill, owner Jack Tavares insists he is an innocent man.

On Friday, he got to tell it to a judge as the first barkeeper in Los Angeles County to be charged under the state's 3-month-old ban on smoking in bars.

``I have done everything the state told me to do,'' Tavares said inside the darkened West Magnolia Avenue bar after a hearing Friday morning where Burbank Municipal Judge Alan Kalkin rejected his plea for dismissal and set an April 17 trial date.

``I can't push people out of my bar,'' he added. ``We won't have any customers. We won't have a business.''

Prosecutors say Tavares knowingly broke the law on two occasions, Jan. 27 and Jan. 30. City Attorney Dennis Barlow declined to discuss the case.

Tavares' Sherman Oaks attorney, James Lindeman, said the city's citations don't identify the patrons who were caught smoking by city investigators in January. It is therefore unclear whether Tavares knowingly allowed patrons to puff away without taking steps to make them stub their cigarettes out.

``It is our perception that they have complied with the laws,'' Lindeman said.

Tavares, who has owned the Burbank watering hole for about five years, said he followed the letter of the law, meeting the requirements placed on bar owners. He has posted signs at the entrance and exit informing patrons that smoking is prohibited. In fact, he has put up six signs.

And he said his bartenders tell patrons to stop smoking when they're inside Crazy Jack's. But it hasn't stopped them from lighting up.

``They're cowboys,'' said Kammie Caudillo, the bar manager. ``They are going to smoke.''

But he never kicked anybody out for smoking, and Los Angeles County health officials said he doesn't have to.

Tavares did ask smokers to sign waivers stating they know they are flouting the ban in violation of state law and that they don't want to be pestered with reprimands.

Officials with the Tobacco Control Section of the State Department of Health Services said Tavares' waiver policy will not hold up in court.

``Signing a statement does not cut the mustard legally,'' said Paul Hunting, a state health education consultant. ``Every time a person lights up, an employee has to say, Excuse me, there is no smoking here.''

Several similar cases already have gone to trial in other counties, Hunting said.

On Friday afternoon, defiance of the ban at Crazy Jack's was in the air - literally. Ribbons of smoke rose from half a dozen patrons' cigarettes.

Customers said they've been amply warned by Tavares.

``If all the people here including the employees are in agreement that we should be able to smoke, then we should be able to light up,'' said Anne Mercer of Burbank.

Bartender Reecie Compton said he kicked the habit seven years ago, but he doesn't support the ban.

``If people who come in here to work are affected by it, it is up to them whether they want to work here or not,'' Compton said.

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PHOTO (Color) From left, Tony Kilpatrick, John Hynes, Sue Ann Stacy and Lolo Dailey puff away Friday at Crazy Jack's Country Bar and Grill.

John McCoy/Daily News