Ruling shuts down liquor store implicated in fatal ‘07 crash
LAKEWOOD – The city’s Liquor Licensing Authority hearing officer Friday ordered Alameda Square Discount Liquors to close, nearly a week after the owner’s husband
Van Thien Pham
was accused of selling liquor to a minor despite a previous conviction for the same offense.
In the previous case, a young woman died and a passenger in her car suffered lingering injuries after Van Thien Pham sold liquor to a teen who shared it with friends before they crashed into the victims’ car in 2007.
Lakewood police charged Pham with another violation April 14 after he allegedly sold a 24-ounce bottle of beer to an undercover, underage member of the department’s Police Explorer unit.
Liquor Authority hearing officer Richard Miller granted a summary suspension of the liquor store’s license at the request of the City of Lakewood during an afternoon hearing.
Pham’s wife owns the store at 12792 W. Alameda Parkway.
Miller ruled there was a “strong likelihood” that another sale to a minor could occur after hearing evidence presented by Lakewood’s chief prosecutor.
“Emergency action is necessary for protecting the public,” Miller said in the ruling he issued from the bench.
Pham remains on probation for an offense at the store four years ago, on March 13, 2007, when he sold liquor to another under-aged teen, with lethal consequences.
The teen and his friends drank the alcohol and later that night the driver of their car caused a two-car collision that claimed the life of 17-year-old Samara Stricklen and injured 20-year-old Seth Mutschler.
The driver, 17-year-old Nanette LaFleur, later was sentenced to four years in a youth-offender facility in Pueblo as part of a suspended 12-year sentence. LaFluer pleaded guilty to vehicular homicide while driving under the influence of drugs and alcohol and vehicular assault-DU.
LaFleur initially claimed to have been a passenger in the accident that killed Stricklen, but investigators later found she had been driving.
Pham was indicted on 10 misdemeanor counts of selling alcohol to minors and was sentenced to two years in jail and four years probation in addition to community service after he entered a guilty plea to the charges in 2008. The judge also prohibited Pham from working in a liquor store as a condition of his probation.
During his trial, prosecutors revealed Pham previously had sold alcohol to minors, including the same teen who bought alcohol the night Stricklen was killed in the collision at West Alameda Avenue and Florida Street in Lakewood’s Green Mountain area.
Pham remains on probation from the 2007 case and Lakewood investigators say he was working in the same store again when he allegedly sold alcohol to the teen in the undercover operation despite the judge’s order barring him from working there.
“Working in a liquor store and the illegal sale of liquor are both in violation of Pham’s probation,” according to a spokeswoman for the District Attorney’s Office, which has filed a petition to revoke Pham’s probation. A hearing has been set for May 3 in Division 1 of the Jefferson County Court.
Lakewood’s summons has been vacated because the District Attorney’s Office is pursuing criminal charges against Pham, according to a statement issued by City Hall Friday afternoon.
