NORTH BEND - Last call at Felipe's.

Beginning at 7 a.m. today, the Oregon Liquor Control Commission's final order went into effect canceling the liquor license at Felipe's Finest Mexican & Seafood Restaurant, located at 635 Virginia Ave. The action was necessary, OLCC officials said, due to serious and persistent problems at the bar dating back to 2004.

But the bar owner, who plans to appeal the decision, thinks otherwise.

“This stuff going on - it's just normal business,” said Indalecio G. Segura, the Klamath Falls businessman who owns the establishment. “A bar is not a church. There are going to be altercations.”

The establishments came under fire in 2004, when police responded to the first of nearly 30 calls - mainly dealing with fights, assaults and public drunkenness - that stretched on for the next two years. In December 2004, authorities said a woman was assaulted while inside the premises and was not allowed to call police, while earlier that month, police used a stun gun to subdue an unruly patron.

But Segura, and his Coos Bay attorney, Adam Gould, aren't going away quietly. They contend the revoking of the license is discriminatory and are considering formal legal action. Segura is of Mexican descent, and many of those who flock to his adjoining nightclub, known as Club Underground, are members of minority groups. They said similar bar behavior, and subsequent police call outs, occur at other Bay Area businesses that serve alcohol, but OLCC has focused on shutting Felipe's down because it's a minority-owned business.

But OLCC spokesman Ken Palke defended the state agency's actions.

“The OLCC has licensed many liquor businesses owned by minorities. We are a state agency and do not discriminate on the basis of race, creed (or) nationality,” he said.

In a prepared statement, Palke said, “While (Segura) clearly believes that he has been treated differently than other licensees, he has not shown by a preponderance of the evidence that the treatment he received was different from the treatment of other similarly situated licensees who were not Mexican-American.”

The wording was pulled straight from the final order sent to Segura, Palke said. The order doesn't block Segura from serving food at his establishments, but it does stop the sale of beer, wine or distilled spirits. Segura has said he does not do enough business on the restaurant side of the house to keep running without a liquor license.

Among Segura's chief complaints, is that OLCC never considered less severe punishments, such as a suspension. But, Palke said Segura had been warned several times by OLCC about the problems, and failed to follow an established compliance plan. Then, last April, OLCC notified Segura it was moving to revoke the license. That set the wheels of justice in motion, spawning a hearing on the matter in September, and a unanimous ruling by the four-member state OLCC board less than two weeks ago.

OLCC maintains Segura has not been able to control the behavior of his patrons for any significant period of time, and has “not proposed any activities that would be likely to ensure compliance with OLCC laws and rules.”

The discrimination allegations gained the attention of the Human Rights Advocates of Coos County, who penned a letter to the OLCC board, suggesting “the possibility of racial bias” in the investigation leading up to the OLCC ruling. However, because the advocates were not a part of the original record, Palke said, the letter was not accepted by the commission. That slight, plus the revelation that state law allows the OLCC to bar the public from attending OLCC hearings, sparked Human Rights members this week to ask local state politicians to look into wiping the law from the books.

During an interview last week, Gould suggested one way around the closure would be for Segura to seek another liquor license under a new organization. However, Palke said the proposed strategy probably wouldn't work.

“In all likelihood, new ownership would be required for the business to be re-licensed,” he said.

On Tuesday afternoon, Gould vowed to find some way to keep the bar open.

“We are not going away,” he said.

However, Palke said, the violations that shut down the club won't allow alcohol to be sold during an appeal process, should Segura choose to take that route.

While that has not yet happened, the weight of Segura's parting words suggested the bar owner would continue to fight what he considers a racist ruling.

“If we go down, we go down with pride,” Segura said.