According to Secaucus Municipal Prosecutor Victor Herlinsky, on March 3, 2000, two girls walked into the Krausers Convenience Store on Tenth Street and Meadowlands Parkway. They looked too young to buy alcohol, Herlinsky said, so the clerk asked them to produce identification.
One of the two 15-year-old girls produced a Virginia Identification card.
“This was not an acceptable identification for purchasing alcohol,” Herlinsky told members of the Town Council during a Sept. 26 hearing, adding that quality of the identification was the kind a person could easily purchase at an arcade on 42nd Street in New York.
Although the clerk should not have accepted the identification, he did, Herlinsky said, and the store was charged with illegally serving minors.
Herlinsky said this was not the first time Krausers had been charged with such an offense. In 1997, he said, the same clerk was charged in a similar incident. While the clerk has since been fired, the store must face the consequences.
The Town Council has no authority to impose fines or suspension, but must make its recommendation to the state’s Alcohol Beverage Control division, which often honors municipal recommendations in these matters.
Herlinsky said Krausers did not contest the charges, but because the previous incident occurred more than two years ago, the town can only treat the case as a first offence.
By pleading guilty to the charge, management of Krausers can get a five-day credit against a possible 15-day suspension of their liquor license, so that instead of not being able to sell alcohol for 15 days, the store will only halt such sales for 10. Herlinsky said the owners of Krausers have also agreed to take precautions against such a sale from occurring again. “The changes made after the first incident were apparently not sufficient,” Herlinsky said.
The store speaks
Timothy J. Bartzos, the attorney representing Krausers, said the clerk responsible for both sales is no longer employed at the store. He also said the store has taken additional precautions to prevent a repeat occurrence in the future. The remaining employees at the store have been instructed on the procedures for checking identification. Acceptable identification is checked against a booklet with photographs of all the driver’s licenses throughout the United States. Employees must also ask the customer to fill out and sign an affidavit verifying age and other information, Bartzos said.
“This provides a multi level check that should prevent this from happening again,” he said.
Bartzos asked the council to grant the five-day credit. He also asked the council not to oppose a possible appeal to the state that might trade off the additional 10 days for a fine.
“The management has taken all measures possible to assure this doesn’t happen again,” Bartzos said.
Although managers from Krausers pleaded no contest to charges, the Town Council delayed its ruling, asking that a representative of the corporate owners to appear. While many Krausers stores are franchises, this one is owned directly by National Food Stores. Council members claimed there was an apparent lack of interest by the corporation that owns Krausers. Councilman Fred Constantino wanted to know why someone from the corporate office had not appeared.
Bartzos said one of the principal owners of the corporation had been contacted, but had an appointment in California. Mayor Dennis Elwell said he felt the managers who did attend the hearing did represent the company, but Constantino and others felt the seriousness of the situation – and the fact that it had happened before – warranted someone from the corporation present during the hearing.
“The council wants to talk to someone from the corporation,” Herlinsky said later. “They want to question him on remedial steps the company will take to prevent this from happening again. The council would also like to see more defined training of the staff and the supervision connected with the clerk who sold the alcohol to those girls.”
Elwell said he would like some of these things incorporated into the company’s policy manual.
“Managers and clerks come and go,” he said. “We want to make sure that employees know what the rules are even if the same managers aren’t there.”