NorShor operator faces more legal troubles
The operator of the embattled NorShor Experience strip club on Superior Street has been charged in Cass County with five crimes related to marijuana, alcohol, a firearm and disorderly conduct.

By: Mark Stodghill, Duluth News Tribune

Jim Gradishar
Norshor Experience James Gradishar was charged last year with carrying a firearm into his strip club. The charges were dismissed by the district court, but the Court of Appeals has reversed that decision. (file / News Tribune)

The operator of the embattled NorShor Experience strip club on Superior Street has been charged in Cass County with five crimes related to marijuana, alcohol, a firearm and disorderly conduct.

James Jay Gradishar of Duluth is accused of possession of marijuana in a motor vehicle, possession of drug paraphernalia, having an open bottle in a motor vehicle, transporting a firearm in a motor vehicle and disorderly conduct.

The four misdemeanors and one petty misdemeanor were filed in Cass County District Court in connection with an incident at the Big Winnie Cafe in the Bena area shortly before 8 a.m. July 19. Gradishar is scheduled to make his first court appearance on the charges Sept. 21.

According to the criminal complaint, patrons at the cafe told law enforcement officers that Gradishar had come in with a gun wrapped in a sweat shirt and implied he would harm a female he was looking for. Gradishar was arrested and spent a night in the Cass County Jail.

However, officers couldn’t find the person Gradishar was allegedly threatening.

“It never happened,” Gradishar said. “This crazy woman was mad at me for something.” He referred questions to his Duluth attorney, Richard Holmstrom.

Because of the alleged threat, Cass County Attorney Christopher Strandlie said felony charges were considered against Gradishar. “Initially, the officers thought he had made threats that could possibly be felony charges, but we felt they weren’t warranted,” Strandlie said Tuesday.

In Gradishar’s conversion van, officers found a marijuana pipe with residue in it, a 12-gauge shotgun with a pistol grip and 20 rounds of ammunition, a quarter-barrel keg of beer, a bottle of rum with the seal opened and five grams of marijuana that had been in Gradishar’s possession.

“First of all, the felony arrest was overblown and unjustified; we now know that,” Holmstrom said of the actions against Gradishar. “My client told me he didn’t do anything wrong inside or outside the cafe and if anybody thought otherwise they were obviously misinterpreting what he did or said.”

Holmstrom said Gradishar stopped at the cafe for breakfast on his way to a golf outing. He said his client told him he ate half of the breakfast and put the other half in a doggie bag to go. He said he tipped the waitress and left without incident.

“He said he wasn’t mad and he wasn’t threatening anybody,” Holmstrom said.

Gradishar pleaded guilty in St. Louis County District Court last year to carrying a firearm in a public place while under the influence of alcohol.

The Duluth City Council last week voted 8-1 not to renew the liquor license at Gradishar’s club. NorShor Experience filed a complaint seeking a restraining order that was granted Monday, allowing the business to sell liquor. A hearing is scheduled for Friday on NorShor’s motion for a temporary injunction.

I think we all know that a pistol grip makes that shotgun extra deadly and it will only be used in the death and destruction of all human kind.

Not that he isn't a dumb person by any means. It's just a pet peeve of mine when the media throws extra details like that into the mix. They might as well call it an "assault shotgun."

They would probably call a K98 a "rifle with a grenade launcher"

Carrying a gun into your own business is illegal?

Now if he would have just stuck with tobacco instead of weed, he could have pulled a full ATF hat trick....

He does seem prepared... to party.

According to the MN Court of Appeals, if you are over B.A.C. .04 and your business is open to the public, you are in violation of the law if you are carrying.

But that's too many caveats for the Duluth News Tribune. They'd prefer just carrying was illegal.

I think this was on the Superior side.

Here's one of the original threads. It was on Superior Street in Duluth.

Frick - stay away from this guy. He is nothing but bad luck: