Bartender guilty of serving minors

By CHERY SABOL

The Daily Inter Lake

A Flathead County jury Wednesday quickly disposed of the first of 28 court cases involving people accused of selling alcohol to minors.

The six-member jury deliberated only minutes before finding bartender Apollo Guisto guilty of selling a beer to a teenager who was working for the Alcohol Enforcement Team last October.

Guisto testified that he sold a $2.25 Bud Light to the teenager after sizing up how old he looked, whom he was with, and how confident he appeared, among other factors.

"Normally, it's a really easy call," Guisto said.

A bartender for 14 years, including in the college town of Missoula, Guisto said he's never been charged before with selling alcohol to a minor.

"There's no reason for me to serve a minor," he said. He believed he would be fired from his job at Del's bar in Somers if he did, he said.

The bar doesn't admit anyone younger than 21, Guisto said. The staff confiscates fake identifications that underage drinkers try to use. Bartenders meet weekly to talk about training and youths who have tried to buy alcohol, he said.

But prosecuting Deputy County Attorney Tim Wenz said that when a 19-year-old man, working with law enforcement, asked for a beer, Guisto served him without asking for proof of his age.

"It's his job to know," Wenz said of Guisto. "He was neglecting to do his duty as a bartender."

Guisto said that he had checked the ages of a group of construction workers in the bar that night. They were also drinking Bud Light and were dressed like the police's undercover teen. Guisto said he believed the teenager was part of the group.

Wenz, though, said it was "up to the defendant to be sure."

Defense attorney Chad Wold told the jury that there is no state law requiring bartenders to ask for identification.

"There is no mandatory duty to card patrons," Wold said.

And Guisto shouldn't be convicted of knowingly selling alcohol to someone under 21 because he didn't know how old the teenager was, Wold said.

The jury quickly convicted Guisto.

Justice of the Peace Dale Trigg followed a sentencing recommendation by Wenz, saying "I don't think this an egregious case that warrants jail time."

He fined Guisto $250 and ordered him to undergo training to avoid serving minors in the future.

Flathead County Sheriff's Office detective Travis Bruyer of the Alcohol Enforcement Team, said the use of teenagers to test bars, stores, and restaurants is having an effect.

A year ago, only 40 percent of the businesses refused to sell to the teenagers. The number is up to 70 percent now, Bruyer said.

He was happy Wednesday with the outcome of the trial and is prepared to testify in the remaining cases.

"I don't think we ever expected people to just say, 'O.K., you got me,'" Bruyer said.

Wold said he plans to appeal the verdict from Flathead County Justice Court to District Court. He represents the businesses that employed 28 people who were cited by the Alcohol Enforcement Team.

Del's bar owner, Bob Lincoln, isn't a fan of the officers' compliance checks. He said his business kept passing the checks, but the team kept coming back until someone failed.

"I think our whole industry is very responsible," he said. "Everybody's trying. At the price of our [liquor] licenses, you can't afford to" sell alcohol to underage drinkers, Lincoln said.

Businesses risk losing their licenses after three citations.

In the Flathead Valley, at least one bar has five citations.

Wenz said he was encouraged that the jury decided as quickly as it did.

"It was a pretty obvious case," he said.