Gas Station Attendant Cited for Selling Alcohol to a Minor

I work at a gas station in the state of Wisconsin. I started working there about a month ago and haven't gotten my alcohol license yet. Some one came to my register to buy beer. I paged my manager, she scanned the beer, did not card the purchaser, entered a passable date in the register prompt and left me to accept payment. I took his cash assuming he was of age and that it was legal for me to proceed. Cops came in 5 minutes later and issued us both citations. My manager was fired, I was not. Is it possible I could successfully fight this in court?

It is possible, however, you apparently knew there was an ID check requirement and did not perform it.

I would fight the citation. You did not have your alcohol agent approval and called your manager who took responsibility for the transaction. It was her responsibility to check ID and she didn't. She was the agent in control of the alcohol sales while she is on duty. I suspect that your employer didn't fire you because all you did was open the cash register and you were working under the supervision of a superior who was the approved agent.

Having that citation on your record may preclude you from getting the alcohol designated agent approval but I don't know that for sure.

Best course is to, when in doubt, card. A bartender friend of mine had something similar happen to her. She carded the person and so she brought it to the manager. The manager gave the okay and both the manager and my friend got citations. The manager should have known better, and I think in cases like this, the manager on duty should be the one cited. Unfortunately, that is not the case, at least it isn't in my State.

I own a small brewery in Maryland and we have a tasting room. Our policy is to card and we don't accept vertical ids. If the potential patron doesn't have an id, sorry, no service. Some Departments of liquor control will inform ahead of time that they are sending in an under aged person, others like to get you off guard. They are often accompanied by someone from liquor control, so I have made a point to meet most of them as an added safe guard. You see them, then you know something is up.

We have had people of age come in with a significant other who is under 21 and the legal aged patron will sometimes attempt to purchase two drinks and will sometimes say something like, "Oh, well my girlfriend is in the bathroom, can I would like to order one for her." The bartender replied, "Oh, she's legal." And he got a little frustrated when we told him we needed to see their id before we could serve them. This is especially important if you have a crowd. During events, we put a person at the door and have wrist bands. If the bartender suspects that they may have obtained a wristband illegitimately, and we have encountered that, we card a second time. I had one guy come in and he ended up giving his wristband to his under aged girlfriend and then when we told him he needed a wrist band, he said he lost his to the person at the door. So if you're using a wristband, make sure the doorman is the only one to put it on the patron and if it looks like it has been tampered with, card or refuse service.

A lot of this ends up policy and is left up to interpretation. Make sure you check the birth date, expiration date, as well as any restrictions on the back of their id. It is best if you can hold the id, run your finger over the image, check for edit marks, and it helps to have a black light.

It would behoove you to take an alcohol server's course (you can even do this online). All the random tips we're throwing out here will be presented in a coherent fashion. There's more to responsible serving/sales than just carding.