Published: March 20, 2008 04:55 pm         

City beer board places two businesses on probation

Ruling same as city court punishment

Two businesses that hold permits to sell alcoholic beverages in the city found themselves hauled in before the city's beer board to explain how their violations could have happened and to learn what action the city was going to take against the permit holders.

Both Las Margaritas located at 72 Woodmere Mall and Redheads Bar & Gill at 224 Peavine Rd. appeared in Municipal Court last month and had their permits placed under six months probation, Det. Capt. Mark Rosser told council. City court did not level a fine against the businesses.

Police Chief David Beaty told council members, who sit as beer board members, that the city police department from time to time does compliance checks on local alcohol permitted businesses to make sure state and local laws are being followed. One such check was conducted on Feb. 6 and two businesses were found to be in violation of the law as it relates to underage sales after a teenage auxiliary officer and a young lady made purchases.

In both cases, the teens presented their proper identification. At Las Margaritas, the two young women were served margaritas and at Redheads the two were served beer.

Police video and audio taped both transactions.

The sales were a result of a misunderstanding, bar manager Wade Davis told the beer board. The bartender who sold beer to the underaged patrons was new and had assumed that the girls' identification had been checked at the door by a private security officer. Permit holder Kim Lemmon said that all waitresses and bartenders had been retrained and that additional security had been hired to monitor all access to the night spot.

In the case of Las Margaritas, the owner and permit holder was the person who looked at the girls' identification and then served them drinks anyway. He said through an interpretor that a language barrier and poor lighting prevented him from reading the girls' date of birth properly.

After the hearings and a few strong words from the panel, the beer board voted to follow city court and put the two businesses' off premise license on six months probation to run concurrently with probation handed down by the court.

Councilman Jesse Kerley was not present for the beer board hearing.