The man of the hour was a no-show but the justice system soldiered on without him.

Accused of selling alcohol without a license, Malaysian entrepreneur Charles Morais, president of Kronos Hotels LLC, failed to appear at a preliminary hearing before Magisterial District Judge Denise Commins Tuesday.

Assistant District Attorney Andrew Gonzalez conferred with Commins, who decided to proceed with the hearing in absentia. It took about 10 minutes for Commins to affirm the merits of the state's case and remand the matter to the Court of Common Pleas.

After the gavel banged, Gonzales chuckled, "I don't ditch criminal charges just because the defendant doesn't show up."

Jayshul Sharma, however, did show up. Now unemployed, he was general manager of the former Holiday Inn at 521 Greenfield Road when an officer from the state Bureau of Liquor Control Enforcement followed up on a tip in September and walked into a banquet room with a fully stocked bar and saw a bartender serving customers and a drink menu with prices.

What the officer didn't see was a liquor license; it had expired seven months earlier.

Sharma was charged — in a separate complaint — with violating state liquor laws and waived his preliminary hearing. Commins set his unsecured bail at $1,500.

Georgia-based Kronos Hotels LLC owned the Greenfield Road hotel, site of the alleged booze sales and a litany of other problems. These included employee paychecks that bounced, utility shutoffs for nonpayment of bills and a restaurant closed by the state Department of Health.

InterContinental Hotels Group owns the Holiday Inn brand and several others and revoked the hotel's franchise tag in October.

Tales similar to that of the former Holiday Inn have popped up across the country and dogged Kronos.

Insulation, irritation and litigation

Tom Showalter and Tina Potts, both former general managers of the Greenfield Road hotel, attended Tuesday's hearing.

"I'm here to show my support for Tom," Potts said. "Too many people have gone through too many trials and tribulations.

"I'd like to see Morais go to jail."

Showalter has been a thorn in Kronos' side since launching a Web site in October, www.kronoshotelsllc.com. The site features links to news articles and legal documents involving the company, as well as hosting a forum for ex-Kronos employees to share stories and vent their anger.

In November, Morais and fellow Kronos principal, Rahesh Mir, sued Showalter for $250,000 in a lawsuit filed in Cobb County, Ga. Among other complaints, the suit accuses Showalter of libel, fraud and slander.

Asked about the matter Tuesday, Showalter sounded confident, saying that he had truth on his side.

Kronos management, said Showalter, "goes by the motto that they're untouchable, that there are no repercussions for their actions." He was pleased by Commins' decision to move the case to the Court of Common Pleas, but he had hoped for more.

"I'm disappointed [the district attorney] couldn't get a bench warrant for Morais," he said.

Not only couldn't the district attorney get a bench warrant for Morais, but the man most likely is untouchable, regardless of the final disposition of the case.

The state's complaint names Morais as the "responsible officer" of Portfolio Lancaster LLC, the corporate name of the former Holiday Inn and, for all intents and purposes, a shield between Morais and any potential charges.

"Charles Morais will probably have nothing come of this," said Officer Greg Harvat of the Bureau of Liquor Control Enforcement.

"It's a little weird to think of arresting a company, but that's what happened. Portfolio Lancaster LLC was arrested and he's the human to speak for them," said Harvat.

If Portfolio Lancaster is found guilty in the Court of Common Pleas, the corporation will have a criminal record while Morais remains "insulated from repercussions," Harvat said.

In June 2007, Kronos spent $65 million for 16 hotels across the United States. Most, including the former Holiday Inn, are now in court-ordered receivership as a result of Kronos loan payment defaults.

In Judge Commins' antechamber before Tuesday's hearing, Showalter struck up a conversation with Sharma's lawyer, Mitchell Sommers.

Sommers had perused kronoshotelsllc.com and offered this assessment: "Kronos' philosophy seems to be milk it; get what you can and get the hell out of Dodge."