The following is a comment that can be found in the Topic Bars Busted in Bay. I have in the past, made a comment into it's own topic. [I know that Scott is not the owner, that he is the manager but he is the agent for the establishment.] This one warrants the same attention.
scott couch said...
I just wanted to comment on what happened. I am the manager of the Muskie Lounge (scott couch) We were charged with serving the minor as well as some other bars in town. In 20 years working in the bar business I have never had a violation. Even when I ran the club in watertown with 300-400 people coming in the door per night we never had a violation. The village sent a minor in that looked in his late 20's. Beard,mustache and very well built. Not lanky as most teens look. Our bartender did check his id but looked at it upside down and thought it said dec. 1986 instead of dec. 1989. The law states "no one can intentional" serve a minor. There was no actual intent in our serving this minor or in the others in town. The bartender that got charged at the Dancing Dog has been in the business for at least 30 years with no violation. If the village wanted to find out if the bars in town were actually serving minors why didn't they send in a minor that looked like a minor? They did not make this town safer. They caught the bars in a mistake. I don't believe for a minute that our bartender knew she was serving a minor as I don't believe our neighbors at the Dancing Dog knew they were serving a minor. I have never heard of a local village police department doing their own under age sting. This is always left up to the county and state level as it should be. I would like to know who is the master mind behind this sting. I intend (and hope everyone that feels the same way will) file a complaint with the New York State division of investigation which is responsible for investigating village and city police departments. They have a toll free number which you can file a complaint with. This is the same department that cleaned up the City of Watertown Police department when they were allowing their officers to break the law with no charges. I would like to firmly state I DO NOT Advocate underage drinking but this sting did not stop underage drinking....it caught some honest businesses in an honest mistake. GREAT JOB ALEX BAY PD!!!!
JC's opinion:
If your looking for the mastermind,[oxymoron]. You do not have to look to far. And no, it is not the Chief of Police....
