Cortez stores penalized for April liquor violations

Cortez stores penalized for April liquor violations

Sept. 30, 2000

By Matt Gleckman
Journal Staff Writer

Cortez store owners whose establishments sold liquor to a minor during an alcohol sting back in April have been meeting with Cortez Police Chief Roy Lane and City Attorney Jim Hatter over recent weeks to discuss discipline.

Hatter said that at a Sept. 12 workshop the Cortez City Council gave him and Lane authority to meet individually with the store owners in order to take disciplinary action on the stores for selling alcohol to minors.

While Colorado state statutes call for a public hearing on liquor violations, Cortez City Clerk Linda Smith said that several years ago the city established a set of guidelines to be used in determining penalties for breaking liquor laws.

"First-time violators must not sell (alcohol) for three days, second offenders 15 days, and so on," said Smith.

Smith said that if a store owner disagrees with the assigned penalty then the city will hold a public hearing so that the store owner or his legal representative can present his case.

City Market, Wal-Mart, Handy Mart, Conoco Corners and Texaco all agreed to stop their sale of alcohol for three consecutive days as a result of the violations, said Lane.

Because the April violation was the second offense for E-Z Mart, it was ordered to stop its sale of alcohol for 15 days, he added.

The Circle S Store is still in the middle of the criminal process and the owner has not yet met with Lane and Hatter.

Hatter said that the city will typically wait until after the criminal hearings are complete before taking its own action.

"I don’t know that we are legally obligated to do this. . . but I think that it is probably prejudicial to an employee’s rights (for the owner to admit guilt for business reasons before the employee ever has a shot at the criminal hearing)," Hatter said.

The city attorney added that this long delay has upset a number of the store owners.

"We have had some store owners that are pretty resentful that we took so long to do these but we are trying to be fair (to the employees)," Hatter said.

According to police reports, two minors — men ages 18 and 19 —were used during the sting to buy beer last spring.

"We’d been hearing it wasn’t hard to buy booze, so we decided to see what could be done," Lane said in April. "We will continue to perform the sting operations until people comply."

Following the sting, several of the owners attributed the sale to an error in judgment.

"We do everything we can, but you can’t be here all the time, and employees don’t look or they miscalculate — it happens," said Janet Stokley, manager of Handy Mart.