Business owner challenges methods used in investigation

By Steve Moyer

Nevada Daily Mail

After a story about a highway patrol operation relating to underage drinking that netted charges in the form of citations alleging violations of liquor laws was printed on Aug. 23, Don Adams, the owner of Echo's Restaurant and Lounge said that, of the many times his establishment had been checked for compliance with liquor laws, no problems had been found in the majority of cases except when law enforcement deliberately brought in minors.

Adams said he and his staff check IDs regularly.

"We've been checked (by law enforcement) 30 times or more," Adams said, although local law enforcement agencies did not confirm that estimate. "I can tell you the names of some of the officers that come in and do the checking. In the vast majority of cases there hasn't been a problem. We don't serve minors. In this last case the two highway patrol officers, who looked to be in their 30s, sat down with this girl between them and ordered a beer. She was a good looking woman and looked old enough, but if she had come in with girls her own age we would have checked. "

Others subject to the investigation and subsequent allegations were also unhappy. One of the suspects named in an Aug. 22 news release asserted that she felt the word "arrest" may imply a stronger action than officers actually took in response to the investigation.

Suspects were given citations and were not jailed.

Sergeant Dan Brocker, Missouri State Highway Patrol, said the press release issued by the department may have been unclear on exactly what action the patrol had taken in response to the investigation.

"That's wordage that we use pretty interchangeably," Brocker said. "Charged, ticketed, arrested; we just become used to using them all the same."

Vernon County Prosecutor Lynn M. Ewing III said, "If you have been ticketed, you have been arrested."

Adams said he realized there should never be an occasion when liquor was served to a minor but felt the Missouri State Highway Patrol's methods were not appropriate and the press release made the alleged infraction look worse than it was.

"The big problem I have with what was in the paper is that it makes it sound like we serve minors all the time. These guys were in regular clothes, jeans and shirts and hats on their heads and she sat in between them and they ordered a beer," Adams said. "The only other time we served a minor it was a local policeman who came in with a girl and ordered a Zima and a Sprite. We knew he was a cop so we thought he was off-duty and didn't suspect the girl with him wasn't old enough."

Adams also said he thought it was unusual that the highway patrol said they received "numerous" complaints when it would be easier for concerned people to call a local law enforcement office.

"How do you even call the patrol? I don't know how to call directly to them," Adams said. "It seems strange to me, most people in town would call the police, or out in the county, the sheriff. Who calls the highway patrol?"

Brocker said that the Missouri Division of Liquor Control is the lead agency on investigating liquor law violations but the patrol assisted.

"Liquor Control is the lead agency, but this is part of the patrol's duties as well," Brocker said. "We've done it in the past. Will we do it in the future? You bet."

The patrol notes that the allegations involved are "mere accusation and are not evidence of guilt. Evidence in support of the charges must be presented before a court of competent jurisdiction whose duty is to determine guilt or innocence."