BEAVER TOWNSHIP Serving up a misdemeanor

Police sent a 20-year-old Boy Scouts Explorer into bars with 'buy money.'
NORTH LIMA -- Beaver Township Patrolman Dan Valentine took four floppy yellow rubber gloves to use as evidence covers for bottles of beer sold to an underage bar patron.
He returned to the police station with two glove-covered bottles full of beer.
If someone hadn't called Steamer's Stonewall Tavern to warn that cops had already busted two bartenders, Valentine may have needed three of the four gloves. Steamer's was the last of the township's four Market Street bars tested for underage sales.
Two bartenders -- at Iron Grill Road House and Stagecoach -- sold beer without asking for identification, Valentine said. Steamer's and Christie's Cabaret, a strip club, asked for ID.
At Steamer's, the bartender admitted to the young man who sat down and ordered a bottle of beer that the place had just been tipped off and apologized for asking for his ID. He played along, fishing in a pocket for the ID he knew wasn't there, and then left, with the bartender saying, "I'm sorry."
20-year-old dispatcher
The Green Township man, a 20-year-old Explorer, is also a dispatcher for Beaver police. Explorers is a branch of the Boy Scouts that encourages career exploration.
Tuesday night, Valentine gave Explorer (he asked that his name not be used) "buy money" to purchase beers. The officer's instructions included what to say to bartenders: "Tell them you left your ID in the truck."
Valentine, the department's juvenile officer, had special instructions for Christie's -- he didn't want to hear that Explorer spent $25 of the buy money for a lap dance.
"You're taking all the fun out of this," the young man shot back with a grin.
Valentine allowed a Vindicator reporter and photographer to tag along. He said the crackdown on underage sales at bars was necessary after the arrest earlier this month of a 17-year-old boy who had admitted drinking adult beverages at Christie's.
The sequence Tuesday night went like this: Explorer, carrying a cell phone and hidden tape recorder, entered a bar and ordered a beer. He taped his order and the bartender's reply.
If served, he left his change on the bar and used the cell phone to call Valentine, who parked across the street from each location. Valentine then alerted Patrolman Dan Lewis, on duty that night with his police dog Kaz.
After the sale, Valentine and Lewis entered the liquor establishment, Explorer identified the person who sold him the beer and the officers took his change off the bar. Explorer made a quick exit.
While Lewis placed the bartenders under arrest at Iron Grill Road House and Stagecoach, Valentine wrote down information from the liquor licenses. He said permit holders face fines and, if they receive too many violations, can see their license pulled.
At the Iron Grill Road House, bartender Sandra Jean Kent, 37, of Columbiana sold a beer to Explorer without asking for ID, Valentine said. At the Stagecoach, bartender Rae Sue Chaplow, 49, of New Middletown didn't hesitate, either, to serve the young man without verifying his age, according to Valentine.
"I'm under arrest?" Kent asked when Valentine and Lewis approached. "Oh!" she said, throwing down a bar towel. She later burst into tears.
Chaplow took the arrest in stride.
She asked Valentine and Lewis if they could wait for Raymond Hertz, Stagecoach operator, to arrive so that the bar could remain open and she wouldn't have to ask its patrons to leave. The officers agreed to wait.
Sometime during the wait is when Steamer's got tipped off that police were busting bartenders who didn't check the ID of an underage customer and sold him a beer.
In the 20 or so minutes it took for Hertz to arrive, Chaplow served drinks to newly arrived patrons. She made it a point, even with customers obviously way past 21, to ask for IDs.
Kent and Chaplow, meanwhile, were each handcuffed and taken to the police station to have their mug shot and fingerprints taken. They were released on own-recognizance bonds.
Charged
They are charged with sale of liquor to an underage person. The first-degree misdemeanor carries with it a penalty of up to six months in jail and $1,000 fine.
The cases will be handled by Judge Scott Hunter at Mahoning County Area Court in Canfield.
Explorer, meanwhile, whether he intended to buy a lap dance at Christie's Cabaret or not, didn't get past the strip club's first checkpoint.
"She wouldn't even let me in the door," he said from a two-way radio in his truck. "She said I needed an ID."
In related underage sales Dec. 22, five of Beaver Township's carry-out liquor stores sold beer to Explorer, Valentine said. Only the drive-through at the Davis Motel was not cited. Cited on charges of selling alcohol to an underage person were:
UJulie A. Tudor, 23, of Beaver Township. Pilot Travel Center Speedway, 10920 Market St.
UJohn J. Aquisto, 46, of New Middletown. Beaver Alley Beverage, 50 Beaver Alley/South Avenue.
URyan M. Zocolo, 26, of Salem. Chalet Premier, 10000 Market St.
UShannon M. Mitchell, 18, of Negley. Giant Eagle, 11734 South Ave.
UDenis W. Byler, 43, of Beaver Township. Beaver Party Shop, 9789 Market St.