Testimony confusion spurs warning from liquor board

Wednesday, Nov. 18, 2009

The liquor license holders of a Bryans Road restaurant earned only a stern warning last week after a waitress almost sold a beer to an underage informant in June.

The Board of License Commissioners for Charles County decided Nov. 12 following a show cause hearing for Mama Stella's Ristorante Italiano to add one day in abeyance to two days that were already being held for a prior violation. The board heard testimony from the waitress and the Charles County Sheriff's Office about an underage informant being served a beer at the establishment June 19.

The license holders contested the charge of selling to someone younger than 21 because the waitress, Theano Giatroupoulos, testified that she didn't actually hand the beverage to the person.

Giatroupoulos said she took the order for the beer, left the table to fill the order and when she returned the informant had left the table. She testified that the beer remained on her serving tray because she needed to check the person's identification to verify the age before handing over the beverage.

The waitress said she returned to the table three times to check the identification but the underage informant had not returned.

Sheriff's officer Robert Glover, who was with the informant, told the board a slightly different version of the incident. He said Giatroupoulos brought the beer back to the table, poured it into a glass and set it on the table, but verified the informant was not sitting at the table when she did it.

Glover also testified that Giatroupoulos returned to the table at least twice to see if the informant had returned so she could check her identification.

The underage informant told Cpl. Judith Harman of the sheriff's office alcohol enforcement unit that Giatroupoulos did bring the beer back to the table, poured it and set it down without asking for identification.

Harman said servers are supposed to check the driver's license of a person before taking an alcoholic beverage order.

She said she did not witness the exchange because she was waiting outside the restaurant.

The board decided to not fine Giatroupoulos or the license holders — Demetres Georgos Goumis, Georgos Demetre Goumis and Robert E. Johnston III — because of the confusion surrounding the testimony about the incident.

"I do in fact believe that service happened here … but I'm inclined to be very lenient because I do believe that the server made a very, very good effort to correct a momentary mistake," said Wayne Magoon, board member. "She tried to correct the mistake immediately."

The board decided to add one day to the two already being held in abeyance for a November 2008 incident at the restaurant. The three days will be held in abeyance until November 2011. If the license holders are cited with another violation, those days will be added to any new closures ordered by the board.

"You dodged a bullet because technically you served the beer but there's a gray area [in the testimony] and we're taking that into account," said Jack Cheseldine, board chairman. "Just be sure that this doesn't happen again."

Two new licenses approved

The liquor board approved new alcoholic beverage licenses for establishments in Bel Alton and Waldorf during the Nov. 12 meeting in La Plata.

The board approved an on-sale only Class C beer, wine and liquor nonprofit club alcoholic beverage license for Joan Vernita Jones, Joan Woodland and Amy F. Scroggins for Miss Motley's Café in Bel Alton and an on-sale only Class B beer, wine and liquor license for Michelle Lavon Collins for the Delta Blues Juke Joint & Diner in Waldorf.

Also during the meeting, the board accepted the resignation of Jeffrey Thorpe as the resident license holder for The Green's Wine & Spirits in Bel Alton and approved Joung Soon Chung as the sole resident license holder of the establishment.

nmcconaty@somdnews.com