If students partying at the bars last week thought liquor enforcement was on the rise, they were right.
After a month of no activity in the campus area, liquor investigators arrested 16 people and cited one campus bar for violating it’s liquor license.
The Ohio Liquor Control Commission must now decide whether Sloe Moe’s, 1536 N. High St., should lose its liquor license or suffer a lesser penalty, such as a fine.
Jeffery J. Bear, a bartender at Sloe Moe’s, was arrested and charged on Feb. 17 with selling alcohol to a customer who was underage. Four customers also were arrested and charged with underage drinking.
Another arrest for underage drinking was made Feb. 17 at 20 W. Lane Ave.
Arrests continued last Friday when investigators arrested and charged eight customers at Quarter’s, 16 W. Lane Ave., with underage drinking.
Two other arrests also were made on Friday, one at Convenient One, 1634 N. High St., and one at Panini’s Bar & Grill, 1561 N. High St.
Cherry Jones, spokeswoman for the Columbus Division of Police, said that while the police do arrest and charge people with underage drinking when they come across it, the job of investigating and looking for such violations lies with the Investigative Unit of the Ohio Department of Public Safety.
“Generally, that is something they initiate,” she said.
A. Ronald Lewis, assistant agent-in-charge for the Investigative Unit in Columbus, said that a large amount of arrests in a certain area during a particular span of time is routine.
Police officers who are out on patrol send in complaints about a particular bar or location, and the Investigative Unit answers them.
“We’re out here all the time,” Lewis said.
