An incident occurred at Ned Devine’s bar in Boston's Faneuil Hall, where a woman reported waking up locked inside the establishment after it had closed. The Boston Licensing Board is investigating the matter, which came to light when the woman, after attending a work event on September 25 made a distressing 911 call around 2:15 a.m. on September 26. She told police she had woken up in the venue’s second-floor restroom, with no memory of the night's events after having an espresso martini, and suspected that she might have been drugged, Boston Globe reported.
Dennis Quilty, attorney for Ned Devine’s, described the incident as an "unfortunate error" during the private event. The staff at the bar failed to clear out the premises before closing for the night, leading to the oversight of the woman's presence. Quilty reassured the licensing board that the staff has since undergone retraining and are taking the incident very seriously, according to a WHDH news report. Conversely, Boston Police report that the woman's toxicology results came back negative.
The Licensing Board's chair, Kathleen Joyce, expressed her concerns over the event, stating that the management and staff have "a fundamental duty of care to protect their patrons," and that the incident represented a "clear undeniable breakdown in supervision." Joyce added that while the bar’s management did apologize, according to Boston Globe. Nevertheless, the board found no violation regarding the alleged drugging but did document the incident on the bar’s record and requested an updated copy of its operations and security plans.
Security footage reviewed by one of the managers, Christina Doherty, revealed that the woman had been served more than one drink by different bartenders during the event, WHDH disclosed. Doherty mentioned that the footage did not indicate any signs of the woman stumbling nor making any "judgement errors." Despite these observations, the perplexing events of that night remain under scrutiny, and the Briar Group, which owns Ned Devine’s, has yet to comment publicly on the incident.
