It was more than three years ago when the city of San Jose shut down the Agave Sports Bar after waitress Diana Prieto was hit and killed by a drunk driver. The city attorney's office alleged Agave, and another establishment run by the same owners – Meli’s Restaurant – were hotspots for trouble.
But since then, Agave’s owners have opened multiple new bars and restaurants across San Jose, some of which have caught the attention of local authorities.
At La Hacienda Parrilla Bar on Alum Rock Avenue, the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) twice suspended the bar’s liquor license last year for serving drinks outside of their approved hours. Only one of those suspensions has been served so far, the agency said.
ABC’s investigation followed a report from San Jose police officers, who responded to a large party there in late 2023 and found at least one minor who had been drinking.
And at Hagale Pues, which opened in the exact same location as Meli’s restaurant just after it was shut down by the city, there were yet more people run over by a car.
Just over a year ago, surveillance video released by San Jose police shows a vehicle hitting a group of people in the bar’s parking lot. According to police, a teenager, 16 at the time, followed the group outside after a confrontation inside the bar and intentionally ran them over.
The driver took off but was later arrested by police. Herbert Vargas, an immigrant from Columbia, was left in critical condition for weeks.
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“I almost died when I heard the news,” said his mother Beatriz from the side of his hospital bed. “My sons are my life.”
Hagale Pues closed shortly after the incident, but the bar’s owners, Lady Lizcano and Manuel Andrade, continue to operate at least two other bars in San Jose, including La Hacienda Parrilla. They also run Encanto on Almaden Expressway.
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Records from San Jose police show they responded to a noise disturbance call at Encanto last year and cited the manager after officers “observed multiple violations from within and outside the business.”
NBC Bay Area called and texted Manuel Andrade several times asking to speak to him or his wife, Lady Lizcano, but they declined the request.
The city attorney’s office also never responded to requests from NBC Bay Area to see if the recent problems at bars owned by Andrade and Lizcano had caught the attention of their office.
The city attorney sued Andrade and Lizcano in 2021 after Prieto’s death, alleging Agave and Meli’s were public nuisances plagued by violence, prostitution, and drugs.
As part of a settlement agreement with the city attorney’s office, Andrade and LIzcano agreed to shutter Agave and Meli’s.
According to the city's lawsuit, women working at Agave offered to engage in sex acts in exchange for money with undercover San Jose police officers.
The driver who hit and killed Prieto was drunk and engaged in sexual activity in the parking lot, according to a police report in the criminal case file, when his car smashed through the restaurant’s outdoor seating area, hitting three people, and killing Prieto.
Just after Prieto’s death, a waitress there who spoke to NBC Bay Area on the condition of anonymity said that she and other women had been pressured into sex work by the bar’s owners.
“We’d have to drug ourselves, especially when we didn’t want to have sex with the clients,” she said. “We also had to perform oral sex to clients in their cars in the parking lot.”
Herbert Vargas has a long recovery ahead of him. He has trouble seeing from his left eye and struggles with memory problems.
But he’s happy to be alive.
“I feel good, thank God,” he said. “My family has helped me tremendously.”
