FORT SMITH : Club tipsters steer police to arrest of 3
Posted on Thursday, August 28, 2008
URL: http://www.nwanews.com/adg/News/235606/
FORT SMITH — In the first case of its kind in recent memory, three Fort Smith residents have been charged with running an illegal club and selling alcohol to minors.
Cedric Marable, 33, Dwight Moore, 39, and Tamika Poole, 31, were arrested Friday after authorities used confidential informants, one of them under 21, to buy drinks in the club at 808 N. 32 nd St.
According to Fort Smith District Court records, Moore and Poole were charged with unknowingly furnishing alcohol to a minor and selling alcohol without a city permit. Marable was charged with selling alcohol without a city permit.
All three pleaded innocent in district court Monday. They are scheduled to go on trial Oct. 15 before Judge David Saxon.
If convicted of unknowingly furnishing alcohol to minors, they could be fined from $ 200 to $ 500. Selling alcohol without a city permit is punishable by a $ 250 fine.
Alcoholic Beverage Control agent Jay C. Rider said he hadn’t encountered a case of running an illegal club and normally doesn’t investigate such cases because it is a city violation.
But he became involved, he said, because he had received complaints about the illegal establishment as had the Police Department over the past two months.
The illegal club was called “Skeet’s” but the structure had no business sign and the windows were blacked out, Rider said.
According to police, complaints were made about loud noise, large crowds and disturbances by intoxicated people besides complaints that the location was being run as a club without a permit.
Two confidential informants, ages 21 and 18, were sent to the club Friday. Each purchased and was served mixed drinks, which were later confirmed to contain alcohol.
Later, Rider entered the location with a search warrant. Inside, he found a large amount of alcohol along with money from the alcohol sales and a 9 mm handgun.