County revokes Thirsty Turtle’s liquor license

HYATTSVILLE, Md. – The Prince George's County Board of License Commissioners voted unanimously last night to revoke Thirsty Turtle's liquor license after more than two hours of testimony from the bar's owners, their attorneys and students.

The bar's ability to serve alcohol may be suspended as soon as Nov. 23 after the board investigates further and submits a written notice of its decision to the bar's owners, Alan Wanuck and Tom Hall.

The deliberation, which began at about 7:30 p.m. last night, was held to review a Sept. 23 incident in which two student police aides were instructed to attempt to get past Turtle's bouncers equipped with only their real, underage state driver's licenses and cash for cover. They were allowed in and served beer once inside. A plainclothes University Police officer then promptly confiscated the two beers, which were used as evidence in yesterday's hearing.

Wanuck and attorney Linda Carter asserted that University Police acted out of their jurisdiction in setting up what Carter called a "sting operation." Carter and Wanuck, who attempted to have the case dismissed several times, also said they were not able to adequately prepare for the hearing. All of their motions were denied.

Wanuck, who saw his bar receive three violations in as many years, would not comment on the decision following the hearing.

The two students, Eric Hamrick and Andrew Ross, both recounted their experiences that night before the county commissioners. Hamrick said bouncer Jordan Reid, 25, hesitated before letting him in. But Ross said Reid granted him entry with little hesitation.

Reid, who would not comment after the hearing, testified it was his policy to never accept vertical IDs, as the state of Maryland issues horizontal IDs to everyone over the age of 21.

Both Hamrick and Ross said they handed the bouncer, who had been an employee of Turtle for more than a year, their vertical IDs.

Reid, who was promptly fired after granting the students entry, testified he felt "disgusted with himself" and called his actions a "lapse in judgment."

That lapse helped to cost Turtle its liquor license.

"There was no possible way," Wanuck testified that he remembered thinking upon learning the students had made it past his two bouncers. "I was shocked."

Wanuck fielded questions from his attorney for more than 30 minutes and entered more than 200 examples of confiscated IDs — photocopies and actual ID cards — as evidence of the bar's diligence in checking its patrons' ages.

He said the board had previously advised him not to take students' fake IDs, saying they are personal property. But that was a risk he was willing to assume, he said.

"My attitude was if they have fake IDs, let's get them off the street," he said. "I don't care [about the liability]."

But board chairman Franklin Jackson, who presided over the hearing, said the fact Wanuck had so many IDs only meant students considered the bar an easy target.

"Evidence like that is a double-edged sword," he said.

As members of the board examined and bent the confiscated IDs, Wanuck, a 23-year license holder in Prince George's County who also owns Alario's Pizza, continued to guarantee his business would clean up its act.

He showed the board a freshly-purchased ID scanner and a new policy promising to prosecute students who use fake IDs at the bar, and he told board members his bartenders would even card inside if patrons looked suspicious or underage.

But it was too little too late and, after commissioner Armando Camacho voted to pull the license, his fellow board members quickly followed suit.

"[Your] plan sounds like it should definitely work," commissioner David Daesok Son said. "But apparently it does not. Whatever you're doing right now, it's not working."

Carter maintained that the sting investigation itself was flawed and that the bar should not be punished based on evidence collected in the operation. She said although liquor board officials are allowed to investigate bars' serving practices on their own, they were out of line when they asked two underage students to act on their behalf, because in so doing county officials created a scenario in which the bar would be caught breaking the law, rather than happening upon such a scenario organically.

"This is nothing more than entrapment," she said.

Wanuck was cited in November 2008 for tampering with or refilling alcohol containers and in August for an underage violation, which he said came after a student passed an ID back to another patron.

Some students said the bar, which is known among students as an underage watering hole, was doomed to be shut down sooner or later.

"Honestly, I'm not surprised," senior accounting major Shira Levenson said. "Everyone knows they take underage people all the time."

Some students lamented the news, however.

"The issue is now that the Turtle's shut down, that all the people that were going to be getting rowdy and getting drunk and all that shit at the Turtle are now going to be doing that in their dorms," said sophomore electrical engineering major Benjamin Press, who added he does not frequent the bar himself. "I don't care if they get into that somewhere else, but if they're keeping me up when I don't want to be up ... that's not kosher."

But liquor inspector John McGorty, who authorized the test involving the two students in conjunction with University Police, said he was flummoxed the board came down as hard as it did on Turtle.

"I'm a little surprised," McGorty said. "I never like to see anybody's license get revoked obviously. As the liquor board we're here to make sure the businesses run smoothly, but unfortunately the commissioners came to that conclusion, and I support it."