Alibi Drinkery co-owner back in jail; bail revoked

By: Deena Winter - February 9, 2021 11:16 am

Ricardo Baldazo

The co-owner of a Lakeville bar notorious for defying the governor’s pandemic shutdown orders is back in jail after being charged with smacking a Jimmy John’s manager in the face for telling his companion to wear a mask.

Ricardo M. Baldazo, 39, of Prior Lake is charged with two counts of fifth-degree assault and one count of disorderly conduct. He was jailed Monday night after his $750,000 bail was revoked for two counts of first-degree attempted murder and two counts of fifth-degree assault for allegedly firing off numerous rounds in his mother’s Burnsville house as police surrounded it on Sept. 2.

A video of the Rosemount Jimmy John’s incident circulated on Facebook after the victim’s mother sought to identify the assailant. Baldazo and his bar co-owner Lisa Monet Zarza were quickly identified by internet sleuths.

They co-own Alibi Drinkery, against which the state has taken multiple regulatory actions for violating shutdown orders from Nov. 20 to Jan. 11.

Rosemount Police Chief Mikael Dahlstrom said police were called to Jimmy John’s Jan. 30 because a woman, who turned out to be Zarza, refused to wear a mask, and then Baldazo hit the manager.

Our stories may be republished online or in print under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. We ask that you edit only for style or to shorten, provide proper attribution and link to our web site. Please see our republishing guidelines for use of photos and graphics.

Deena Winter

Deena Winter has covered local and state government in four states over the past three decades, with stints at the Bismarck Tribune in North Dakota, as a correspondent for the Denver Post, city hall reporter in Lincoln, Nebraska, and regional editor for Southwest News in the western Minneapolis suburbs. Before joining the staff of the Reformer in 2021 she was a contributor to the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times. She and her husband have a daughter, son, and very grand child. In her spare time, she likes to play tennis, jog, garden and attempt to check out all the best restaurants in the metro area.