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December 28, 2007

License suspension sought for SNM Liquors in Providence

PROVIDENCE -- Assistant City Solicitor Steven Catalano today asked the Providence Board of Licenses to impose a two-week suspension of the liquor license of SNM Liquors of 187 Douglas Ave. for selling alcohol to a minor in a Nov. 17 police sting operation.

The board took no immediate action. Vice Chairman Gordon D. Fox said a decision will be made in 10 days.

During the hearing, Providence Det. Joseph Amoroso testified that Providence police were contacted by the Barrington police, who told Providence they had information that the driver of a motor vehicle involved in a fatal accident had consumed alcohol bought at SNM Liquors.

As a result, Amoroso testified, Providence police included SNM Liquors on a list of liquor stores to be tested to see if they would sell to minors. The police sent Luis Robles, a 20-year-old member of the Providence Police Explorer program, into SNM Liquors to buy a Bud Light 6-pack.

Robles testified that he went in and bought alcohol from Shawn Merilan, the store owner who was working the counter. He said Merilan sold him the 6-pack without questioning his age or asking him to sign the minor book -- where a customer fills out his/her personal information if the person's claim of being of age is doubted, regardless of the ID information shown.

Merilan testified that he did not remember the sale but that he might have sold it to Robles because Robles resembles one of his other customers who Merilan knows is of legal age.

Earlier this month, Merilan pleaded no contest in District Court to two violations of selling alcohol to minors and was fined $250 as a result of the police sting operation. He was one of several liquor store owners summoned to court as part of that sting.

The offense that Merilan and store workers faced was a violation of a criminal statute. A record of that conviction was entered into the evidence today.

-- With reports from Journal staff writer Gregory Smith

Barrington police told Providence police that Michael J. Silveira, 17, of Barrington, who was at the wheel in the car crash that killed his friend Jonathan C. Converse, 16, of Barrington, was the one who consumed alcohol allegedly was bought at SNM Liquors.

Last week, Silveira entered a plea agreement and was sentenced to serve two years in the state Training School for driving while intoxicated and slamming into a tree.

Neither Merilan nor SNM Liquors has been criminally charged in connection with the liquor that Silveira ultimately allegedly drank. Today's hearing focused on the Providence police sting operation, not the Barrington investigation.

But Amoroso said after the hearing that the transaction may be the subject of a Providence police licensing investigation of SNM liquors, which is a civil, not criminal, matter.

Dan Converse, the father of Jonathan Converse, attended today's hearing as did Barrington police Det. Josh Birrell.

After the hearing, Converse said that he attended to educate himself about the civil and criminal legal process involving minors. He said he finds that the law in the criminal domain provides "a slap on the wrist" for selling to minors.

"You can't downplay the importance of supplying alcohol to minors," Converse said.

Posted by Mike McKinney at 4:58 PM | Permalink

December 28, 2007

License suspension sought for SNM Liquors in Providence

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