Workers at

seven New Ulm

businesses

charged with

selling alcohol

to minors

Routine investigation conducted

last weekend

By KURT NESBITT

Journal Staff Writer

NEW ULM -- A routine investigation into the sale of alcoholic beverages to underage customers resulted in gross misdemeanor charges against employees of seven New Ulm businesses.

Criminal complaints were filed recently as the result of the New Ulm Police Department's annual investigation, which was conducted last weekend by two New Ulm police officers, a Sleepy Eye police officer, a Gaylord police officer and two law enforcement students from Minnesota State University, Mankato.

Each of the seven people allegedly sold beer to one of the students without asking to see identification. They are charged with one count of selling an alcoholic beverage to a person under 21 years of age, a gross misdemeanor punishable by no more than a year in jail and a $3,000 fine.

The charges could also impact the seven businesses if any of the employees are convicted.

According to New Ulm City Attorney Hugh Nierengarten, the city council could sanction any business that is caught violating the law. The penalty would be decided by the city council, he said.

Many local bar managers declined to comment. However, Sue Mackert, spokesperson for Coborn's Inc., which owns Cash Wise Liquors, said that the New Ulm store passed 23 in-house compliance tests before the current charge was filed.

Brian Landreville, manager of the Lamplighter Family Bar and Grill, said he has trained his employees to ask customers for identification repeatedly, yet violations still happen.

"You could feed it to them until they bleed and it's still going to happen," he said.

New Ulm Police Chief Erv Weinkauf said, "This doesn't mean they're bad people; they just didn't do what they were supposed to do, which is check for I.D. Most all the establishments conduct training and it's unfortunate that sometimes employees don't follow it. I'm not saying they never do their jobs, but on this night, we found seven that didn't do their jobs."

Charged were:

Lori Jean Achman, 44, of New Ulm, an employee of Mowan's Bar.

Jerome Eldor Cordes, 60, of New Ulm, an employee of the New Ulm American Legion post.

Amy Grace Dirksen, 22, of New Ulm, an employee of Lamplighter Bar and Grill.

Lyndsey Lappe, 26, of Lafayette, an employee of Rodney's Tavern.

Martha Viola Lau, 20, of New Ulm, an employee of Kwik Trip.

Leslie Anne Noble, 31, of New Ulm, an employee of Quick Mart.

Gary Lynn Roiger, 54, of New Ulm, an employee of Cash Wise Liquor.