Store, eatery fined for underage sales

Wednesday, Nov. 19, 2008

Demetres Georgos Goumis, the owner and one of the liquor license holders of Mama Stella's Ristorante Italiano on Route 210 in Bryans Road, was charged a $500 fine and ordered to not sell alcoholic beverages to his customers on Nov. 24 after a waitress did not check an underage informant's identification Sept. 1 and sold him a beer, said Cpl. Judith Harmon of the Charles County Sheriff's Office alcohol enforcement unit during a Board of License Commissioners for Charles County show cause hearing Nov. 13.

Goumis' sister, Theano Giatroupoulos, admitted that she didn't check the informant's identification because she thought the manager had already checked it.

The liquor board also charged Giatroupoulos $50 for the violation and is holding two days of closure in abeyance for two years. If another liquor violation occurs at the restaurant those two days will be tacked on to any new fines and closures levied by the liquor board.

It is the first violation that Mama Stella's has had since the restaurant opened 28 years ago in Clinton, Goumis said.

Jin Hee Kim, owner and sole license holder of Pinefield Liquors in Waldorf, was charged $500 and was ordered to close the establishment Nov. 24 and 25 after her son, Yong Kim, sold a 12-pack of beer Sept. 23 to an underage informant who drove up to the store's drive-through window with an undercover deputy, Harmon said.

The liquor board also charged Yong Kim $150 and the board held one day of closure in abeyance in the event that another liquor violation occurs at the establishment.

It is the first liquor violation at the establishment since Jin Hee Kim has been the license holder, Harmon said.

Yong Kim admitted to not recognizing the under-21 Maryland license that the underage informant showed him before selling the beer. The vertical photo outlined in red should instantly be recognized as the driver's license of an underage person, said board member Wayne G. Magoon.

"You should know that there's a move on in Charles County to remove drive-in windows at liquor stores and you have one," Magoon said. "Having a drive-in window is a privilege and you're putting other liquor store owners who have them in jeopardy. Continued violations are just adding more ammunition to get rid of them."

"It was my mistake," Yong Kim said. "I saw the identification wrong. … This has never happened before and it will never happen again."

Kim said that from now on all of the employees of the establishment will be told to not sell to anyone who has the vertical driver's license.

During the two days that the establishment is closed Jin Hee Kim cannot accept deliveries or sell alcoholic beverages.

Also during last week's meeting, the board approved the transfer of a beer, wine and liquor on/off sale license for Miss Whitney's at Classic Crabs in Waldorf from Theodore William Wilson Jr., Timothy Fath and Zeta Deen to Khanh Tho Le, Dorothy Edna Reeder and Heang You Huynh.

nmcconaty@somdnews.com