Washington, DC – Attorney General Karl A. Racine announced today that the Office of the Attorney General (OAG) was successful in obtaining a $10,000 fine and a 10-day license suspension from the District’s Alcoholic Beverage Control Board against Michigan Liquors, located on 12th Street NE near the Catholic University of America, for the sale of alcohol to minors.

Alcoholic Beverage Regulation Administration (ABRA) investigators found four underage patrons purchasing alcoholic beverages at the store during a compliance check on December 11, 2014. A 24-ounce can of Budweiser, a can of Four Loko, a bottle of Smirnoff Fluffed Marshmallow Vodka, a six-pack of Angry Orchard Cider, and a six-pack of Bud Light were confiscated from the minors. Upon noticing the investigators, workers at Michigan Liquors attempted to close the store.

“OAG and its Civil Enforcement Section take the sale of alcoholic beverages to minors very seriously,” Assistant Attorney General Fernando Rivero, who represented the OAG in the case, said, “Together with ABRA we enforce the law to protect the public, helping to eliminate easy avenues to underage drinking and reducing the potential consequences to the public’s health and safety.”

Michigan Liquors was found guilty of six counts:

• Four counts of “[t]he sale or delivery of alcoholic beverages to... [a] person under 21 years of age, either for the person's own use or for the use of any other person .... "
• Two counts of not “tak[ing] steps reasonably necessary to ascertain whether any person to whom the licensee sells, delivers, or serves an alcoholic beverage is of legal drinking age.”