Accused of selling alcohol to a person under the age of 21 in October 2020, a local business owner will have to relinquish his beer license for 45 days. The original 90 days was imposed by the Smithville Beer Board last fall, but an agreement was approved in DeKalb County Chancery Court June 1.
Markos Malak, the owner of T & B Market at 102 East Broad Street, will get his beer license back after the 45 day period and the violation against him will be dismissed. Malak will be given credit for seven days.
The action to suspend Malak’s license came last fall after a store clerk working for him at the T & B Market was cited for selling beer to a person under age 21 in violation of the city’s beer ordinance. The citation was the result of an undercover investigation conducted Thursday, October 22 by detectives of the Smithville Police Department using a 19 year old man to make beer purchases. T & B Market was one of three stores caught up in the undercover operation in which clerks failed to ask the undercover agent to show identification before selling him beer.
During a hearing on November 24, the Smithville Beer Board suspended the licenses of each store for 90 days but local attorney Jeremy Trapp, representing Malak contested the decision insisting that the board was punishing his client (Malak) for the actions of the store clerk.
Trapp referred to the city’s beer ordinance which states that “It shall be unlawful for any beer permit holder to make or allow any sale of beer to a minor under 21 years of age.”
According to Trapp, the ordinance does not address the actions of a permit holder’s employees and since his client himself had not sold beer or allowed the sale of it to a minor his beer license should not be suspended.
City Attorney Vester Parsley argued during the hearing that the permit holder (Malak) is responsible for his agents and employees and recommended that the beer board find that the permit holder (Malak) violated the beer ordinance and suspend his permit for a period of 90 days. The board followed the recommendation of its City Attorney and suspended Malak’s beer permit for a period of 90 days, effective November 25, 2020.
In December Trapp petitioned the Chancery Court for a “stay “of the suspension pending a judicial review of the beer board’s decision. Chancellor Ronald Thurman granted a stay which has remained in place until Tuesday’s court session during which time attorneys for both sides reached a compromise approved by the Chancellor to settle the matter.
Under terms of the agreement, Malak will surrender his beer license for 45 days immediately but he will receive credit for the seven days after the hearing when the city took Malak’s license before the Chancellor issued the “stay”. After the 45 day period, Malak’s beer license will be returned to him and the violation against him will be dismissed.