Employee fined $100 after underage sale at Tia’s Cantina in California, Md.

The Alcohol Beverage Board of Saint Mary's County on Nov. 13 imposed a $100 fine on an employee of Tia’s Cantina after a sheriff’s office compliance check found the employee had served alcohol to a 20-year-old confidential informant.

Sergeant Robert Merritt and deputies described the Aug. 27 compliance check. According to the sheriff’s office account read into the record by an enforcement officer, the confidential informant ordered a bottle of Corona and the server, later identified as Savannah Paige Nelson, served the beverage without asking for identification. Photographs of the beverage and transaction receipt were placed into evidence, and the bottle was discarded by the licensed premise staff.

Nelson, sworn and questioned by the board, described the interaction as “very fast” and said she put in the drink order “without thinking in the moment.” She acknowledged the lapse as “very rash thinking on my end” and told the board she had been suspended for the remainder of the week by her employer and that the establishment instituted a daily sign-in sheet requiring staff to ID every patron before their shift.

Based on the facts presented and testimony at the hearing, a board member moved for a $100 fine under Annotated Code of Maryland, Alcoholic Beverages Article §6‑304 and the board’s rules (5.04(j)). The board voted to impose the fine, and the board chair advised Nelson she has 10 days to pay and 30 days to appeal the decision to the Circuit Court for Saint Mary’s County.

The board record shows the fine was imposed as a financial penalty rather than suspension of the license; the board did not announce additional corrective measures beyond the fine and the employee’s suspension by the employer. The enforcement report and the board’s penalty notice are part of the public hearing record.