MOUNT VERNON — Four men and three women were convicted on Friday of selling alcohol to minors. All seven people pleaded guilty to the charges in Mount Vernon Municipal Court.
According to Mount Vernon Police Detective Sgt. Jeff Jacobs, on May 23, agents from the Ohio Department of Liquor Control, the MVPD and Knox County Sheriff’s deputies conducted a countywide operation to crack down on alleged sales of alcohol to underage people. Jacobs said two undercover operatives were sent to eight different convenience stores and drive-thrus in the city, attempting to purchase alcohol. The two informants were a male and a female, both from outside of Knox County and both 20 years old.
In six out of the seven cases, the accused sold alcohol without asking for any identification from the informants. In the seventh case, the accused did check the informants ID, but mistakenly read the birth day before completing the sale.
Jeffrey Martin, Christina Myers, Rosa Neighbarger, James Smith, Gary Campbell, Ronald Coe and Tracy Ferraira were all sentenced to pay a $500 fine. Each was also given a 10-day suspended jail sentence. The jail time was suspended provided none of the defendants commit a similar offense for the next two years.
Jacobs said that during the alcohol buys, the informants were told to be truthful about their ages and to furnish their legitimate state issued IDs upon request.
“[Liquor Control] had some complaints that there was underage selling going on in Knox County,” said Jacobs. “That’s what got [the investigation] started. They definitely figured there was a problem.”
He added that this is the first time in recent memory that state agents have come to Mount Vernon to investigate underage alcohol sales.
In addition to the criminal citations issued to the employees who handled the actual alcohol sales, the businesses face possible sanctions or fines from State Liquor Control. In Mount Vernon, the following businesses were cited for underage alcohol sales: South End Sunoco, 105 Newark Road; Bullock’s Drive-Thru, 2 Mount Vernon Ave.; and Kwik-N-Kold Drive Thru, 405 Coshocton Ave.
Four businesses were cited in Danville: Danville Mini-Mart, 601 S. Market St.; People and Pets Drive Thru, 20428 Coshocton Road; BP Gas Station, 2 S. Market St.; and the Horse-Shoe Drive-Thru, 803 S. Market St.
According to Julie Hinds, a spokeswoman for the Ohio Investigative Unit, each of the businesses accused of a violation will be ordered to attend a hearing with the Ohio Liquor Control Commission. There, the permit holders could face a warning, fines, a permit suspension or permit revocation.
“[The penalty] is usually determined by past history,” said Hinds.
The Investigative Unit of the Ohio Department of Public Safety reported that 18 citations have been issued so far this year to various businesses in Knox County. Of those businesses cited for underage alcohol sales, six were in Danville, two in Howard and 10 in Mount Vernon.
The Ohio Division of Liquor Control reported that in 2007, Ohioans purchased roughly 10.2 million gallons of spirituous liquor totaling $672.7 million in sales.
According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, approximately 507,000 underage youth in Ohio drink alcohol each year. A similar report, published in the 2006 Journal of Studies on Alcohol, states that underage drinkers consumed 21.1 percent of all alcohol sold in Ohio in 2005. Knox County Juvenile Court records show there are approximately 80 cases of underage consumption per year in the county.
