The Charles County Board of License Commissioners (liquor board) has fined three businesses for selling alcohol to underage patrons. The businesses were 

Mama Stella’s Ristorante Italiano and Murphy’s Store in Bryans Road and Red Lobster in Waldorf. The decisions came at the board’s monthly meeting on Thursday, July 10, 

The first case involved Mama Stella’s where a customer under the legal drinking age of 21 was served alcohol without being carded.

Owner Demetres Georgos Goumis admitted in sworn testimony that the server was his daughter, Katarina Goumis. The offense took place in March of this year. Goumis testified that he had signs posted throughout his restaurant reminding employees to ID customers, and that all of his employees had undergone training. He said his daughter had worked at the restaurant for the past five years.

“She’s been working there since she was 15,” he told the board. “My reaction was, ‘how dare you do that, especially when you’re my daughter?’ It is unacceptable.

“I have spent all of my life in the restaurant business,” he said. “My 42-year-old son manages the restaurant now. I’m retired. I go in maybe four or five days a week.”

Katarina Goumis told the board that her brother was not on the premises the night of the incident.

“I am very disappointed in myself,” she said. “I understand that this is a very serious violation. There were two or three servers besides myself that day.” She said there were about 16 customers in the restaurant at the time of the infraction.

Since the incident, the entire staff has undergone alcohol training and have been directed to check IDs, she said.

Liquor Board Chair Pamela Smith was told that since an earlier infraction four years ago, the restaurant has passed three other checks in 2009, 2010 and 2011. She suggested a fine of $1,000 for the restaurant and $200 for the server, with the restaurant’s liquor license suspended for two days with a third held in abeyance for three years.

“I would treat this as a first offense,” Board member Wayne Magoon said. “I was at $500 for the business and $200 for the server, with the restaurant’s liquor license suspended for two days with a third held in abeyance for three years.”

The penalties suggested by Magoon were approved and Smith told Goumis, “You can still serve food on those two days, but you can’t serve alcohol, and your alcohol must be covered from view.”

The second case involved the serving of a Bud Light to an underage patron at Red Lobster at 11035 Mall Circle in Waldorf March 7, 2014 during a compliance check in March.

The board met with manager Joseph G. Kern and lawyer John Mudd to discuss the case.

Clerk Judith Thompson read the allegation, stating that the board’s compliance officers were conducting a compliance check at the restaurant March 7, 2014. According to written testimony, the waitress, Clarissa Rodhe, came and took the drink order and the patron ordered a Bud Light. One of the fake patrons had a valid ID but was under 21 with a birth date of 8-2-1994. The identification was a vertical card, which servers are trained not to accept when serving alcohol. The waitress returned, served the Bud Light, took the two men’s food order and walked away. At that point the officers cancelled their food order a