O'Neill's Irish Pub was fined after a doorman allowed an underage Alcoholic Beverage Control operative to enter the bar Friday night. Despite the incident, most establishments on the Corner say they trust their bouncers and plan to maintain their current security policies.
The O'Neill's doorman who allowed the ABC operative to enter subsequently was fired.
"The bottom line is that on a busy night, it's the doorman's responsibility to make sure everyone allowed in is 21," said O'Neill's regional manager Rebecca Lehnert. She said prior to Friday night, in the five years O'Neill's has been open, it has never received an ABC violation.
The doorman, a fourth-year College student, said the operative entered with a group of students that he knew during a crowded period of time.
"This was never a power-rush job for me -- if I knew the person, I let him in," said the student, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "It's a tough job, it could have happened to anyone -- you never know when they're going to come."
A Charlottesville ABC agent, also a sworn and certified police officer, and a 20-year-old undercover operative went to the Corner Friday night to monitor the bars' ABC licenses.
The operative, in a standard procedure, attempted to enter O'Neill's with a valid ID clearly stating he was underage, while the agent watched nearby.
"If the licensee checks their ID and lets them in, the agent will follow that underage person in -- when the sale is made the underage person leaves immediately," ABC Media Relations spokesperson Whitney Miller said. "The agent will then go up and inform the person that made the sale that it was an undercover operation."
ABC conducts the checks fairly randomly and at places about which it has received complaints, said agent Wells, who works in the Charlottesville ABC Satellite office. "We have a hotline that people can call and we get a list of places to check from city police," Wells said.
The doorman will not face any criminal charges, but O'Neill's will face ABC fines, Lehnert said. The amount of the fine is not yet determined.
The doorman was dismissed after the ABC agent confronted both him and the O'Neill's manager on duty.
"He let in someone under 21, and by giving them a wrist band he led everyone else to believe he was 21 too," Lehnert said.
O'Neill's makes customers wear wristbands upon entering as an extra security measure, to prevent people from sneaking in without showing ID.
Although Corner bars are competing for business, ABC patrols create a common feeling of nervousness, Jaberwoke General Manager Casey Galloway said.
"This semester we've upped the number of security," Galloway said.
Biltmore Assistant General Manager Andrew "Fuzz" Otto conveyed confidence in his bar's security measures.
"We hire lots of kids that aren't in school, since they are more detached from the scene," Otto said.
Biltmore also presents customers with wristbands prior to entering, a measure that helped them to avoid a similar ABC fine last year, Otto said.
"We got a warning last year, but it was clear that the underage drinker had snuck in since they did not have a wristband," Otto said.
Second-year College student Nat Fraser, also an O'Neill's doorman, said checking IDs is a difficult job.
"As bouncers we know there are a lot of fake IDs out there and we do the best we can to keep underage people out," Fraser said. "Bouncers are people too -- we are only human."
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