UCF Helped Organize Undercover Stings
News, Safety, UCF Administration — By Staff on September 21, 2009 at 3:54 pmKnightNews.com has confirmed the University of Central Florida has partnered with Orange County officials to establish “underage drinking enforcement details” targeting UCF area bars through the use of undercover officers.
At least four bartenders or shot girls were arrested over the weekend “as part of an ongoing effort to reduce (the) underage drinking problem at the local bars, restaurants and convenience stores within Orange County,” according to an arrest affidavit obtained by KnightNews.com.
The detail makes use of a “confidential informant,” who must be under the age of 21, have no facial hair if male, and not be “dressed up” or “wearing revealing attire” for females, to enter a bar and try and buy alcohol underage.
At TD’s Sports Bar, Orange County Sheriff’s deputies used an 18-year-old male confidential informant to enter the bar at 12:35 a.m. Saturday, according to the affidavit.
“Confidential Informant was greeted by the doorman who checked his identification and allowed him entry to the bar but did not issue him a wrist band to drinking (sic) in the bar,” Deputy Marc Petruccelli wrote in his arrest affidavit.
“While inside the establishment,” Deputy Petruccelli wrote, “I directed Confidential Informant to purchase one shot of vodka known as a,(sic) ‘Jolly Rancher’ from the shot girl and provided the informant with ten dollars in U.S. currency of investigative funds. While standing directly next to the informant I witnessed the informant purchase a,(sic) ‘Jolly Rancher’ shot from the shot girl later known to me as Kaitlyn Watts.”
“Moments later, the same shot girl served Confidential Informant one shot after he gave her a five dollar bill from the investigative funds,” Deputy Petruccelli wrote. “She gave him one dollar in change. The shot girl did not ask for identification or check to see if the informant wore a wrist band authorizing him to drink in the bar.”
Petruccelli wrote that after the hand-to-hand transaction, he took possession of the shot from the informant, and asked the shot girl what was in it. She admitted it contained vodka, according to the affidavit.
Then, Petruccelli wrote, he took a sample of the shot to bring back to the lab for analysis and threw away the rest. Watts,18, was charged with the misdemeanor of selling alcohol to someone under 21, arrested and transported to the Orange County Jail. She was released on $250.00 bond at 10:15 a.m. later Saturday morning.
Just five minutes earlier at TD’s that night, a 19-year-old male confidential informant entered TD’s Sports Bar with Deputy Andrew Merks, and a very similar scene played out involving another shot girl, named Nicole Maduros, 22, according to her arrest affidavit. Maduros was arrested on the same charges, booked into jail, and released at 12:44 p.m., also on a $250 bond.
Before the arrests at TD’s, KnightNews.com was already reporting breaking news on our Web site and Facebook Fan page, announcing we got several tips of bartender arrests at Scoop for allegedly serving underage.
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According to arrest affidavits, the same deputies separately entered Scoop undercover with two male confidential informants, one 18 and one 19, between 10:35 and 10:45 p.m. and instructed them to buy alcohol.
The 19-year-old informant bought a $3.00 bottle of Bud Light from Michael Marsh, with Deputy Merks standing four feet away, and the 18-year-old informant bought the same from Derek Gibbons, while Deputy Petruccelli stood seven feet away, according to the affidavits.
The affidavits say Gibbons did not ask the informant for his ID or check for a wrist band, but do not mention whether Marsh checked the informant’s ID or for a wrist band. Samples of the beer were collected, the two bartenders were booked into jail and released the next morning on $250.00 bond each.
KnightNews.com is still waiting for the Orange County Sheriff’s Office to release a full list of the bars targeted that night, and the number of arrests made. We received reports of arrests at Devaney’s as well, but so far have been unable to confirm. We are also trying to find out if the bartenders had to be arrested and brought to jail, or if they could have been given a “notice to appear” and not arrested.
We also have been unable to contact the bartenders arrested so they can give their side of the story about what happened, and share their thoughts about this aggressive new enforcement. (If you can help us get in contact with them, please e-mail us at news@knightnews.com or have them e-mail us directly).
KnightNews.com readers have commented on our original breaking news story expressing their opinion that these undercover drinking stings are “setting up” hard working college students, who make honest mistakes while in a rush to do their stressful jobs, so they can continue working their way through school.
We e-mailed a UCF spokesman to ask if the university believes the problem lies with the bartender or underage drinker, but we were referred to speak with the state Division of Alcoholic Beverages & Tobacco instead, since it helps lead the enforcement angle of the Underage Drinking Task Force.
The task force responsible for these undercover enforcement details was established by UCF President John Hitt and Orange County Mayor Rich Crotty on February, 7, 2008 following the deaths of two 18-year-old UCF freshmen, Michael Forehand and Austin Gilpin, which were related to underage drinking, according to the Orange County Underage Drinking Task Force Report.
A major goal highlighted in the report is to “reduce underage alcohol access by increasing enforcement of drinking laws … with vendors through coordinated enforcement details.” The task force requested $25,000 in funding to execute that portion of the plan alone.
Overall, the task force is requesting an additional $196,600 to an already $1.5 million budget spent on curbing underage drinking at all levels throughout the county, according to the report.
KnightNews.com reporters are still working to gather more information on this major story, including finding the total number of weekend arrests, and to find out more about how it will affect your nightlife, employment and safety at the University of Central Florida this year.
What do you think about the Underage Drinking Tast Force UCF helped create? Is it needed? Will it help?
Please share your comments and questions below, so we can research and try to provide answers as we continue our coverage.
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24 Comments
I have been looking looking around for this kind of info. Will you publish some more in future? I’ll be grateful if you will.
Any bartender by law is required to have a serve safe class to be certified and this includes know what to look for if people are being overserved or for fake ids. College bars are known to be the underage drinking spot. Probably over half their business is underage. I know some bars where the managers encourage serving underage. The knowledge for every bartender is that if the cops, atf, etc catch you serving underage you will be taken to jail on the spot. In some instances, you can be fined or not permitted to serve alchol for a year. Bartenders know this going into the job and it’s the risk they take by serving underage. In no way do I feel sorry for the bartenders. What they were doing was illegal, plain and simple. I’ve drank underage but I do not serve anyone without an i.d. UCF students can be hardworking bartenders and still follow the laws. If anyone is at these bars and drives drunk and gets into an accident, the bar and the bartender is held responsible as well. If this was just a mistake like the article says then boy is there a ton of mistakes happening in the ucf area.
Don’t blame UCF for this! Long ago I worked at Pounders (now Knight Klub) as a shot girl and a bartender. They told us that as long as we gave the shot to a person with a wristband, we were cool, even if they gave that shot to someone who was underage. That is how we made money! The bartenders know what they are doing, trust me.
I find it interesting that the more controversial the article is on this site, the less likely you are to find a byline that reads anything besides “staff”. It’s as if they know they’re playing with fire and are too chicken to reveal themselves as having covered a story like this one in the manner it was covered.
Dude, that “task force” UCF formed with orange county happened back in like 2007. WTF did you guys do, just dig an old news story up and think “this proves that the arrests were UCFs fault!!” Did you all even call the police department? Are you trying to be a real news source or just a rumor blog?
It’s really not professional to post mug shots of four random bartenders and single them out either. I sure hope you guys plan on running the mug shots of everyone arrested on friday and saturday nights from now until ever so it is fair.
pardon me on the spelling error do* at least I apologize for my mistakes
This site has no credibility whatsoever… they don’t fact check properly before they post, nor to they check spelling, grammar or punctuation very well. Anyone who feeds into the trash published on this site is wasting their time. I feel bad for the people who work to put this site together because it is honestly going to be a black spot on their journalism resumes. If they are trying so hard to appeal to the student body, maybe they should start by not publicly humiliating students for the selfish purpose of getting hits on their website. ABSOLUTELY DISGUSTING AND COMPLETELY LACKS PROFESSIONALISM.
They need to follow the law while trying to make a living. If your employer asks you to break the law, no matter where you work, you should say no or report them. If these people really wore asked to break the law by their employer (instead of just failing to do their job), they should have reported that, likely collected more money then they’re making at these low paid jobs, and doing something good for society.
The people arrested made NO ATTEMPT to check for underage drinkers. If they asked for any form of ID, a wristband, or anything, nothing would have happened to them, even if it was fake or forged or whatnot. This is the best way to get the bartenders to have SOME concern about the people their serving, rather than just hoping for a nice tip.
bla: You’re suggesting the police do something illegal, they can’t block the entrance to an establishment for a checkpoint as that would be illegal, they would have to do a checkpoint at an area that wouldn’t unfairly target one bar or just bar goers, as per the law. They would have to stop every car at some point along alafaya or university.
It sucks, but this kind of thing happens all the time, it’s nothing new.
If anything positive can come from this, it’s that it makes people think twice before they put themselves in jeopardy. I’ve met countless servers/bartenders/etc who would apologize for being so strict on checking ID’s, after explaining that they had a few friends get arrested for serving to minors. Again, it sucks but it works.
As far as putting their picture up, it’s nothing that wasn’t made public already. They didn’t have to post them, but the whole point is attaching a name to a face. It makes the situation all more real and hit closer to home.
They actually go hand and hand, freshman go nuts drink to much and drive drunk. Then again everybody does, so yes it does matter
Can someone explain to me what drunk driving has to do with underage drinking?? These are two TOTALLY separate issues, and if the cops want to stop drunk driving, there are much more effective and relevant ways.
The whole notion that this was say a 1 in 50 chance that they happened to not look at somebody’s wrist for a band is just silly. Those bartenders simply didn’t look. It takes an extra 4 seconds to say “where’s your wristband” and look at it when they present it.
They knew what they were doing was wrong.
With all that said, I don’t really think the punishment should be jail. The survey used by knightnews is obviously leading you to try to get a response. How do you know that this under-aged person just wants to have some fun but they have a DD? What the cops should be doing is manning the parking lot exits. Cover the exits and breathalyze the people driving out one by one. Honestly I do prefer to see that because a drunk driver killed somebody I knew and I was almost hit twice by drunk drivers around UCF.
That way you actually keep drunk drivers off the roads.
Whoever wrote difference of opinion you are obviously very naive. They put pictures on the news of criminals who have committed felonies! The bartenders have committed misdemeanors! The crime they committed is a step up from a traffic ticket. Read a book or ask a lawyer. I am sure you would not want your picture up for serving someone underage since you worked in bar. And obviously people would not be sticking up for them if they robbed someone or mugged someone because that is a serious crime. And I am also sure that you have consumed alcohol under the age of 21 and just did not get caught. Lucky you. Unfortunately these poor kids were not so lucky and were set up! Think about the situation and how it happened before you bad mouth your co workers. Obviously there was no one at your well to set you up when you worked because your a tool. Get over yourself and you should be embarrassed for posting such a dumb comment!
Okay, so as for the mug shots, I could honestly care less. The situation that I think is ridiculous is the fact that these people were arrested. College students that are simply trying to make it through! I know everybody has already commented about how they need to work their way through college, but after being at these bars, it is VERY difficult to track the amount of people who want drinks, let alone checking everybodys wristband. Besides, the majority of underage people are buying fake wristbands and getting older students to get them alcohol! Why are the bartenders getting the bash for things that are not entirely their fault?? It is ridiculous. What is wrong with our society is trying to make an example out of people to scare other people from drinking! It is not going to scare the underage drinkers, nothing is going to stop them from getting what they want…beer. Law enforcement is just encouraging underage drinkers to move somewhere else OR pre-drink before they go. Law enforcement should be worrying less about this and more concerned with the theft,crime and murders that occur. Maybe, if I do not see a death in the news for about a month, law enforcement can work on the alcohol problem. But lay off! Jeesh, this problem can be solved by lowering the drinking age to 18. If people can serve in the military and die for our country, people should be able to go out and have and have some fun! I actually say this as a student who does not drink
I tend to disagree with most of these comments. I think it is entirely fair that the pictures are up. Although these bartenders and shot girls are innocent until proven guilty, they obviously did something to be accused. I worked at one of these bars and know it is difficult for students to be able to afford to live. No matter how busy we were, I made sure I took the necessary precautions to minimize my chances of serving an underage person. No amount of money is worth ruining my life. Breaking the law is not an excuse. TV news stations show pictures of suspects for every case they report. This is no different I feel. No one would be sticking up for these people if they were robbing people to pawn their things, or if they mugged people, no matter what their reasoning was. It does not make a difference what the situation is, breaking the law is breaking the law and they embarrassed themselves by doing so.
i didnt really like how they had the jail pictures up at first either… but then in this article they included the officer’s names and all the details about the informants too im sure the cops dont want to get out.
at least they put it all out there…. and arent protecting the cops or anything
I agree with many of the previous posts. The fact that these bartenders and shot girls pictures were included in the article is ridiculous. Yes, this instills a bit of fear in the bartending population, but that shouldn’t be the target of these stings – the kids that are drinking underage then driving, etc. should. No matter how careful you are, it’s easy to miss one or two wristbands in a busy night.
I also concur with previous statements – if you are going to call out TDs and Scoop, call out all the bars that have recently been raided – I know a bartender at Devaney’s and another one at Medici’s that were also arrested, and have heard about Friendly Confines and other bars as well. Being called out like this inevitably affects a bar’s business, and considering the sting went out to many local bars, its only fair that everyone gets affected instead of only two establishments.
why are the editors of this shady website anynomous. they dont anyone to know who they are and they put up pictures of local bar employees. at least put your on names on there so people who read your garbage know who to be pissed off at.
Underage drinking is bound to happen with college students 18-20 years old. You put a group of people together in college that half are under the legal drinking age and the other half aren’t and everyone expects that everyone is still going to want to party. The law shouldn’t have the drinking age at 21 by any means anyway, and by spending all of this money on “stings” at local college bars, you’re wasting your money because this type of behavior is always going to happen no matter where you go. And as for the bartenders… they’re pictures being posted is TERRIBLE. I feel so bad for them. They were trying to get through their job and make some money!
I personally think it’s ridiculous to set up students like this, who are working to afford college (rising tuition sound familiar, anyone?) Not to mention publicly posting thier pictures is embarassing… as if their records havn’t been smeared enough, now their photos re in the news? It’s one thing to be a brash journalist, and it’s another to rub salt in a wound. Unecessary. The entire plot behind the stings is manipulative and harsh, and in the majority of cases, a charge like this is more detrimental to a student’s record and future than the few drinks they are having or selling. It’s a shame that UCF and law officials can’t more effectively pick their battles. Maybe UCF should be concentrating on the STD rate of its students, or law officials on the crime rates of student housing, instead of a bartender trying to make enough to afford books, or a stressed student having a beer on a Friday night.
The story is a good idea. Posting their pictures is not. What if they’re eventually found innocent?
And.. Now I can even make fun of that girl’s hair color. I mean come on.. WE KNOW your real hair color is brown. The blond doesn’t suit your face. You’d be hotter as a brunet.
and he did check for a wristband! Get your facts straight before u run your mouth.
SERIOUSLY THIS WEBSITE SUCKS!! TAKE THOSE PICTURES DOWN!! whoo do you think you are…. sooo unnecessary. I HOPE U GUYS GET SUED
1.5million + nearly 200,000 more on underage drinking? honestly?
theres plenty of schools here in america that could use the same amount of money to buy BOOKS for students so four or five kids don’t have to share the same book.
Good job on your sting, you accomplished a lot for the betterment of society.