LIISA SPINK The Village Expressmart on Le Conte Avenue in
Westwood has had its permit to sell alcohol suspended.
By Josh Wolf
Daily Bruin Contributor
Alcohol recently became a little bit harder to buy in
Westwood.
The California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control revoked
the liquor license of the Village Expressmart on Feb. 22 after a
three-year appeal ran out.
Expressmart was the closest alcohol retailer to campus and often
received an equal share of attention from both college students and
local law enforcement bureaus.
The store was cited for selling to minors twice in 1996 and once
in 1997. The last offense met California’s three-strike limit
and led to Expressmart’s current legal troubles.
When the California State Supreme Court rejected a request by
Expressmart’s owners to review the case, the ruling of the
Second District Court of Appeals was finalized.
“The district court of appeal basically said the evidence
showed that our actions were justified in revoking the
license,” said ABC spokesman Carl DeWing.
But co-owner Robert Lippman had a different take.
“It’s like fishing for tuna and catching dolphins.
We just got caught in the net,” he said.
Since 1995, California has had a three-strikes law for alcohol
sales to minors. Under the policy, if an establishment is caught
selling alcohol to minors three times within a three-year period,
the ABC is able to revoke its license.
Expressmart has been in operation since 1984 and has always held
a liquor license. Lippman said he has employed an armed guard to
assist cashiers in enforcing alcohol policies for 10 years and
emphasizes the importance of following the law to his
employees.
He urges them that abiding by the law is more important than
losing customers, even if that means checking IDs of people over
the age of 21.
“I’ve heard they’re tough there. If
you’re under 21, it’s not the place to go,” said
first-year undeclared student Daniel Menendez.
The third offense at Expressmart occurred on Oct. 4, 1997.
According to the ABC, the buyer was a minor in search of alcohol
who was observed by a group of both police and ABC officers. He was
not solicited by the officers.
They said the minor walked up to the counter with a 12-pack of
Coors and showed the clerk an ID. The individual then left the
store without the beer, but returned later and handed the clerk
bills in exchange for the alcohol.
He was stopped immediately upon leaving the premises.
When asked for ID, the minor showed his driver’s license,
which displayed his real age.
The cashier said that he was sure the ID he had seen had not
included the red stripe characteristic of underage licenses, but no
fake ID was found.
The ABC quickly revoked Expressmart’s liquor license under
the three-strikes law in November 1997.
An administrative law judge first heard the case and ruled that
the ABC could revoke the license. Lippman and partner Al Klein
appealed the decision.
DeWing said “licensees have due process rights and they
can appeal all the way to the Supreme Court. That’s the game
we have to deal with.”
The legal battle dragged on as an ABC appeals board independent
of the department, reversed the decision.
It ruled 3-0 in favor of the Expressmart, stating that the
existence of a fake ID was possible, as the suspect would have had
a chance to get rid of it. Based on the poor quality of the
evidence, the board reversed the judge’s decision.
The 2nd District Court of Appeals overturned the reversal on the
grounds that the fake ID claim was not credible, and that even if a
fake had been shown, it shouldn’t have been accepted due to
the obvious underage appearance of the buyer. The Court claimed
there was substantial evidence to support the ABC’s findings
and approved of the revocation of the Expressmart’s
license.
According to DeWing, ABC was prepared to shut down Village
Expressmart on May 4 of last year when the owners’ appeal to
the California Supreme Court halted that action.
“They appealed that day and it took almost another year to
go through the appeals process. It’s extremely frustrating
for us because it wastes an awful lot of taxpayers’
money,” said DeWing.
Finally, ABC was able to follow through.
On Feb. 22, ABC Secretary Maria Contreras-Sweet posted a liquor
license revocation notice at the Village Expressmart after the
California Supreme Court rejected the request to review the
case.
An appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court also proved futile for
Lippman and Klein, who also own Breadstik’s, a grocery store
in Westwood.
Lippman said while alcohol sales accounted for 25 percent of the
Expressmart’s business, a large share of that business has
been transferred to Breadstik’s in the last two weeks.
“Economically, it will be a small hit,” Lippman
said.
ABC guidelines state that a liquor license cannot be issued to
the Expressmart location for at least one year.
Nevertheless, Lippman said he plans to apply in 12 months time,
calling on his reputation for strictness and what he believes to be
the ambiguous nature of not only the most recent violations, but
ones preceding that.
“I don’t know what will ultimately happen,”
Lippman said.
The move drops the number of establishments that sell alcohol in
the area between campus and Wilshire, Hilgard and Gayley Avenues to
31. In comparison, the areas between Warner Avenue and Hilgard and
between Gayley and Veteran each have five such businesses.