Elizabeth "Lizzy" Croke

CONCORD — State Liquor Commission officials have fined the Old School Bar & Grill in Windham $2,500, suspended its liquor license for 10 days and ordered four employees to enroll in and complete training programs in connection with the April Merrimack crash that claimed the life of 20-year-old Bishop Guertin High School graduate Elizabeth “Lizzy” Croke.

Employees of Old School Bar & Grill were charged with over-serving Vincent Forgione, 24, the driver of the Honda Ridgeline that collided with Croke’s Audi Q5 on the Everett Turnpike in Merrimack early the morning of April 15.

According to Manchester-based Attorney James Normand, who is representing Croke’s estate, Forgione — who was also killed in the crash — had a blood alcohol content of .224, nearly three times the legal limit of .08.

Liquor Commission officials charged Old School, at 49 Range Road in Windham, with an “aggravated violation,” according to Normand, which accuses the bar of “serving alcoholic beverage to a person who was visibly intoxicated, or who a reasonable and prudent person would know is intoxicated,” according to the minutes of the commission’s November meeting.

They suspended the bar’s liquor license for 10 days, from Nov. 22 to Dec. 2, and fined the establishment $2,500, the maximum penalty allowed by the Liquor Commission’s regulations.

The four employees named in the minutes include one of the bar’s owners, Lauren Pappas, who was honored in March by the Greater Salem Chamber of Commerce as part of its observance of National Women’s History Month.

Pappas was ordered to complete a Management Training Seminar (MTS) online, while employees Lucas Zarzi, Melissa Johnson and Bonnie Dalicandro were ordered to complete a Total Education in Alcohol Management (TEAM) online seminar, according to the minutes.

Meanwhile, Normand, the Crokes’ attorney, said Monday he has filed suit in Rockingham County Superior Court on behalf of Lizzy Croke’s estate.

The suit alleges “that Old School Bar & Grill over-served Vincent Forgione, (which) contributed substantially to Forgione driving impaired and substantially contributed to the death of Elizabeth Croke,” Normand wrote.

David Croke, Elizabeth’s father and the executor of her estate, noted in a brief statement that his daughter “would have turned 21 on Dec. 14,” and that this “is the first Christmas holiday that her family will spend without her.

“I think that it is terrible that the drinking establishment has had so little a penalty. The law needs to be changed,” Croke added.

Normand said Elizabeth Croke was a sophomore at UMASS Amherst, and was returning home from work at the time of the crash.

She was the youngest, and only daughter, of David and Lynn Croke’s four children. She resided in Merrimack and attended Bishop Guertin High School in Nashua, graduating in 2019.

Normand said the Bishop Guertin Facebook page noted around the time of Elizabeth’s death that “Lizzy was a ray of sunshine and touched all our lives.”

Dean Shalhoup may be reached at 594-1256 or dshalhoup@nashuatelegraph.com.