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Liquor board punishes illegal beer sellers
Country club's restaurant gets on-sale license
Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2009
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The liquor license holders of three local restaurants were fined $500 last week after selling beer to underage informants late last year.
The Board of License Commissioners for Charles County fined Raymond L. Rawlings and Patricia A. Rawlings, the license holders for Ray's Pier in Benedict, $500 and ordered them to not sell alcoholic beverages Feb. 18 for selling a beer to an underage informant Nov. 21, according to Cpl. Judith Harman of the Charles County Sheriff's Office alcohol enforcement unit. Two days of not selling alcoholic beverages at the establishment were held in abeyance for two years. If another liquor violation occurs, those two days will automatically be added to the number of days the establishment would have to close for the most recent violation.
The waitress who sold the beer to the underage informant said that she did not ask for the young person's identification.
"I'm sorry," Jill Denise Wood said during the show cause hearing held Feb. 12 in La Plata.
"I've been trained to check IDs. … I've learned my lesson." Wood was not fined.
Gerald T. Aaron, John David White and Robert V. Price, the license holders for Lone Star Restaurant & Saloon in Waldorf, were also fined $500 for a server selling a beer to an underage informant Dec. 20, according to Harman. The server, Chery Bien Sy, was fined $150.
The license holders were ordered to not sell alcoholic beverages at the restaurant Feb. 23. Two days were held in abeyance for three years in the event of another violation.
Heather Ridgeway, the restaurant's manager, said that the corporation has tightened up its rules regarding checking identification at the establishment to ensure that another violation does not occur.
Sy said that she checked the underage person's identification, but did not recognize the red lined vertical driver's license that automatically should signal that a person is younger than 21.
"We realize that this is a serious matter and we'll make sure that it doesn't happen again," Ridgeway said, adding that servers are automatically fired when such a situation occurs.
Melissa Gibson, Dustin E. Gilbert and John J. Lunsmann, the license holders for Applebee's restaurant in La Plata, were also fined $500 for a serving a beer to an underage informant Nov. 21, Harman said. The server, Joseph Andrew Kavlick, was fined $50 and lost his job at the restaurant because of the violation.
The board did not order that the license holders stop selling alcoholic beverages for this offense, but held two days in abeyance for three years in the event that another violation occurs.
Kavlick said that he checked the under-21 driver's license, but served the beer to the underage person anyway.
"The mistake was on my part," he told the liquor board. "I hate to admit it. It makes me seem really dumb."
"No, it makes you look like a standup guy because you admit that you made a mistake," said board member Wayne Magoon.
The liquor board also granted a new beer, wine and liquor on-sale-only license to Cynthia I. Ransome and George E. Ransome of Cindy's at Hawthorne at the Hawthorne County Club in La Plata.
