Action News Uncovers Businesses Busted for Liquor Violations

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Story Published: Jul 7, 2009 at 4:21 PM PST

By Molly Kelleher

Action News is naming names. We're looking at which businesses are selling booze to minors and we also found out which county has the most violations.

"We're driven by stats. We go to a spot if there's DUIs in an area or complaints officers tell us about," said Lt. Kent Williams with Washington State Liquor Control Board.

Lt. Williams knows the trouble spots because he's the local eyes and ears for Washington's liquor control board. He works with anyone selling alcohol, sometimes educating, other times doing compliance checks and sometimes sending in undercover officers.

Action News pulled the reports from the Liquor Board to find out who's selling to kids. Benton and Franklin each had three violations from May of last year to May of this year. Kittitas had seven, Walla Walla two, but Yakima County had 29.

We wanted to know why so many in Yakima County. Williams says it's because it's not just the liquor board taking an interest and YPD takes an aggressive approach too.

"They do a lot of compliance check sometimes, we'll get 10 cases from them all at once. Benton County is not as aggressive with checks by their police departments," said Lt. Williams.

Action News also took a closer look at the businesses with multiple violations. For Benton County, Club Paradise was the big one. There was a total of 3 for the whole county and Club Paradise had two out of three. Now Action News has just learned Club Paradise is shut down.

In Wapato, The Hideaway Restaurant and Lounge got slapped with three violations, including selling to a minor and allowing minors to frequent.

As for the rest of the busted businesses in the past year: Granger, Walla Walla, Ellensburg and Sunnyside all had a business with multiple violations.

"It's an issue parents need to consider carefully. If you hear your teen talking about a place or texting something, let us know," said Williams.

Because the sooner they know, they sooner they can crack down.

Action News has posted a complete list of the documents we got from the Liqour Control Board.

To See the Full Documents Click Here.

Click Here for More Documents.

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