Lynn liquor store hit with 3-day suspension

LYNN – Two liquor stores on Commercial Street charged with the same violation for selling alcohol to a minor appeared before the Licensing Board Tuesday, but only one was slapped with a suspension.D&M Market at 99 Commercial St., will begin serving a three-day liquor license suspension today for an incident that occurred on June 12, while Heald Liquor Stores at 6-12 Commercial St., was issued a letter of warning for an incident on June 6, with a caveat that if the store comes under fire again, they would have to serve a three-day suspension on top of any new charges.According to a police report, Lynn Police detectives Peter Holey and Richard Fucci observed a minor exiting D&M Market with a bag that looked as if it were carrying a 6-pack of beer.When Holey and Fucci approached the minor, he admitted he was only 19 years old and had purchased a 6-pack of Heineken from owner Anca Dovico at the market.At Tuesday’s hearing, Dovico, who has been the owner of the market since December 2007, admitted that she made a mistake when she sold the Swampscott minor the alcohol.”The kid just slipped through the cracks and it was a stupid mistake,” she said. “I refused him two other times, and I knew he was 19 years old?I’m terribly sorry.”Board chairman Richard Coppinger said it bothered him that Dovico knew the teen was underage yet sold alcohol to him anyway, and advised her to seek better training so that it wouldn’t happen again.In the case of Heald Liquor Stores, manager Alisha Ke came under fire for selling $86.20 worth of alcohol to a 17 year old minor last month.Holey said he saw two younger looking males, one later identified as 17 years old, and the other 19 years old, carrying a large amount of alcohol from the store that they admitted they purchased with an older brother’s identification.In all, a 30-pack and a 12-pack of Pabst Blue Ribbon beer, a 40-ounce bottle of Colt 45 beer, a bottle of Smirnoff vodka, another bottle of vodka, a bottle of white zinfandel wine, and a 6 pack of Budweiser Lime beer were found in the trunk of the minor’s vehicle.Like Dovico, Ke openly admitted to having made a mistake.Ke’s attorney, Sam Vitali said she hasn’t been able to sleep at night since the incident occurred.”Her job is to check for valid identification, she got that and reasonably relied on what she saw,” he said. “In terms of her actions, she did what she was supposed to, but he (minor) lied to the police, not her.”Board member John Pace said he recently observed Ke in action at the store and said she apparently runs a tight operation, but Coppinger expressed concern over the amount of alcohol that was sold to the minor in one transaction.”This is only speculation, but it doesn’t seem as if this person was buying for himself, but was probably going to distribute it to other individuals,” he said. “It was going to be a serious party.”Coppinger said because of Ke’s clean record, she was not issued a suspension, but advised her to take a closer look at identifications of those who enter her store in the future.