Five Local Businesses in Lavonia Cited for Selling Alcohol to Minors

Lavonia Police Chief Shane Edmisten wants local business owners who sell alcohol to know his Department is keeping an eye on those who sell alcohol and tobacco to minors.

Saturday, police cited five local stores in Lavonia and arrested five store clerks for not asking an undercover customer who was underage for ID when they purchased alcohol, according to Captain Joe Smith, Commander of the Department’s Criminal Investigation Unit and Professional Standards Unit.

Smith said the investigation was launched after Police received numerous complaints.

“So we’ve received numerous complaints over the past several months about underage tobacco and alcohol being sold by various businesses, convenient stores, package stores in the City,” he explained. “We utilized an individual who is not an employee of the Police Department but has given us information on things before who is 19 years old. We took them around. They were instructed to go in and purchase a small quantity of either tobacco or alcohol at the businesses where we had complaints.”

Smith said of the seven stores they checked, five sold to the underage customer without asking for ID.

“None of the cashiers at those businesses asked for ID. So, it was just a straight sale without asking or verifying any age,” he said.

In addition to the stores being cited, the cashiers who failed to ask for ID were arrested.

“The businesses will have to face civil violations through the City Council. According to the Lavonia City ordinances any violations of these laws will have to go in front of the Council for their business license and they’ll face fines there. The person who sold the tobacco or alcohol was actually arrested on misdemeanor charges.”

Chief Edmisten tells WLHR News his officers will be routinely conducting undercover inspections of local businesses that sell alcohol.

Smith said he wants to get the word out that those businesses need to obey the law.

“We want everyone to know that we are watching, we are checking. For me, I have a 16-year-old daughter. And it’s about making sure that nobody sells her any alcohol or any tobacco until she’s of age. It’s about keeping the kids in the community safe from this. And also just trying to stop it from happening, which we hope in the long term would curb future addiction of some type,” Smith said.

Smith said in addition to Lavonia Police conducting random undercover inspections, agents from the Georgia Field office of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms were in Lavonia last fall conducting a similar operation. Smith said they will also be conducting more undercover operations in Lavonia in the future.