Liquor store owner agrees to close after husband’s arrest
LAKEWOOD – A liquor store has surrendered its license to operate in the city just a day before a hearing to decide whether the city would penalize the store after the owner’s husband was accused for a second time of selling liquor to a minor, City Hall said Wednesday.
Van Thien Pham
Van Thien Pham is charged with violating the terms of his probation stemming from a 2007 case in which Pham admitted he sold alcohol to a teen-ager who shared it with friend just before they were involved in a fatal traffic accident.
Pham’s wife owns Alameda Square Discount Liquors at 12792 W. Alameda Parkway.
Lakewood Liquor Authority hearing officer Richard Miller scheduled the May 6 hearing after granting a summary suspension of the liquor store’s license late last month. The suspension came at the request of the City of Lakewood and effectively shut down the business based on Miller’s ruling that there was a “strong likelihood” that another sale to a minor could occur. The ruling came after Miller heard evidence presented by Lakewood’s chief prosecutor.
“Emergency action is necessary for protecting the public,” Miller said in the April 23 ruling he issued from the bench.
Miller scheduled a penalty hearing for Thursday, but it was canceled after Pham’s wife surrendered the store’s liquor license.
Earlier this week, Pham’s request for bond reduction was denied after a Jefferson County District Court judge said she believes Pham poses a serious danger to the community. The judge ordered him returned to jail in lieu of $25,000 cash bond.
The ruling came during a probation revocation hearing, which will resume June 14, two days after Pham is scheduled to face arraignment in the latest case, in which he is charged with selling alcohol to an under-age member of the Lakewood Police Department Explorer unit in early April. Pham’s first court appearance on that charge will be June 10.
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.
“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 filed the petition to revoke Pham’s probation
