Family’s lawyer speaks out after hazing charges filed against two in MU freshman alcohol poisoning case

Two men have been charged with hazing after a University of Missouri freshman was left disabled after drinking large amounts of liquor at a fraternity event.

A Boone County grand jury on Friday indicted Thomas Shultz of Chesterfield, Missouri, and Ryan Delanty of Ballwin, Missouri, each with hazing that endangered a life and supplying liquor to a minor. Shultz was also indicted on a felony count of tampering with evidence, according to court records. Shultz's indictment says he kept relevant text messages from investigators.

Delanty was the "pledge dad" of Danny Santulli, who was hospitalized in October with alcohol poisoning after a Phi Gamma Delta event, a lawyer representing Santulli's family in a civil case has said.

The attorney, David Bianchi, has said Santulli was left blind and unable to walk or communicate after the poisoning. Santulli was made to drink a bottle of vodka at the fraternity event and was taken to the hospital in a private vehicle after he became unresponsive.

Soft drink giants cosy up to spirits brands as canned cocktails soar

As canned cocktails look set to nudge hard seltzers out of the spotlight, major soft drinks companies such as Coca-Cola are making moves to sign deals with spirits brands. As a result of the pandemic and its consequent lockdowns, drinks companies are manoeuvring to benefit from the added impetus the home cocktail revolution has given the RTD sector.

Ask any bartender for a Jack and Coke and you will be served a shot of Jack Daniel’s Bourbon and a cola (not necessarily Coca-Cola) mixer. Indeed, Brown-Forman, the owner of the Jack Daniel’s marque, has produced its own cans of Jack and unbranded cola for more than three decades.

Last week’s announcement that Coca-Cola and Brown-Forman are coming together to produce a branded “Coke and Jack” RTD across the global market takes the concept a whole lot further. Global groups are uniting to fight for a big share of what is already a significant market.

In the US the leading online drinks retailer Drizly now offers more than 450 RTD lines, which it says is a 45% increase in consumer choice compared with 2021.

Also in the US, canned cocktails have a built-in advantage as they are permitted in most arenas and concert venues where patrons are usually forbidden bottles .

But it is not just in America, and to a lesser extent, Europe, that demand for RTDs is expected to soar as the trend of drinking at home is reinforced and consumers seek the added convenience of opening a ring pull rather than storing numerous cocktail ingredients in their fridges and kitchen cupboards.

TABC arrests El Paso man on charges of impersonating an agent

An El Paso man landed behind bars after he claimed he was an agent of the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission while visiting a local bar.

Christopher Jacob Contreras, 27, was charged with impersonating a public servant, a third-degree felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a $10,000 fine. Contreras was arrested by TABC agents June 13 and booked into the El Paso County Jail.

TABC’s El Paso Enforcement Office received reports May 22 stating that a man had identified himself as a TABC agent while visiting an alcohol retailer. He told employees of the business that they had violated the law by selling alcohol to a person younger than 21. When questioned by a manager of the business, the man claimed he needed to speak with his TABC supervisor and left the premises.

A subsequent investigation conducted by the El Paso Enforcement Office, with the help of local businesses as well as witnesses, identified the suspect.

“We’re extremely grateful to the businesses who immediately reported this suspicious activity and enabled us to identify the impersonator so quickly,” said Brandy Norris, TABC Chief of Law Enforcement. “It’s important to remember that a legitimate TABC agent will always properly identify themselves as working for the agency and will have an official ID or a badge on display when making contact with a business owner or staff member.”

Why States should keep winning the physical-presence cases, Part I: using the extraterritoriality doctrine on defense

On June 1st the Fourth Circuit upheld, against a dormant Commerce Clause challenge, a North Carolina law requiring retailers who sell alcohol in the State to have a physical presence there. It’s the third federal court of appeals to have upheld laws of this kind against claims that they unconstitutionally discriminate against interstate commerce: the Sixth and Eighth Circuits previously did so in cases out of Michigan and Missouri, and a similar case out of Indiana is now pending in the Seventh Circuit. These laws are common and, in my view, easily defensible. There’s a reason every judge who previously had weighed in had little trouble rejecting the plaintiffs’ claims.

But much to my chagrin, in the Fourth Circuit case—in which I filed an amicus brief for the Center for Alcohol Policy and the NC Association of ABC Boards supporting North Carolina—Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson wrote a dissent in which he became the first jurist to go the other way. Judge Wilkinson is one of the most respected judges on the bench, but his dissent missed a couple of important points I want to highlight in this post and another in the future.

NC-5 sentenced in Wilkes moonshine case

Five men were sentenced Thursday in U.S. District Court in Charlotte for their roles in a Wilkes County-based conspiracy involving the sale of over 9,500 gallons of moonshine.

They include Roger “Buck” Nance, 76, of Wilkesboro, identified as “master distiller” for a legal distillery in North Wilkesboro and a “notorious moonshiner in Wilkes County” in a sentencing memorandum.

Nance was sentenced to two years of probation with a year of home incarceration with GPS monitoring.

Clifton Ray Anderson, 47, of Boomer, was sentenced to six months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release with six months of home confinement.

James Patterson, 71, of Dinwiddie, Va., and Huie Kenneth Nicholson, 75, of the Yadkin County portion of Hamptonville, were both sentenced to two years of probation with six months of home incarceration with GPS monitoring.

Gary Matthew Ray, 53, of Roaring River was sentenced to a year of probation.

All five men plead guilty to being part of a conspiracy that defrauded federal, North Carolina and Virginia governments out of over $186,000 in excises taxes owed on liquor, based on at least 9,700 gallons sold between April 2018 and September 2020. Each man was ordered to pay $23,619 in federal tax.

Avalara : Alaska modernizes alcohol laws, creates new DTC licenses for wineries, breweries, and distilleries

Today, wineries, breweries, and distilleries can ship their products directly to consumers in Alaska without a special permit. With the enactment of Senate Bill 9, manufacturers and wholesalers of beer, wine, and spirits will be subject to new layers of compliance, including the requirement to obtain a permit to ship to consumers in the Last Frontier.

This has been a long time in coming. Over 100 representatives from the beverage alcohol industry, local governments, and public health and safety entities worked more than 16,000 hours over a period of nine years to revamp the licensing statute and regulations for alcohol-related businesses in Alaska and bring SB 9 to the table. According to the Alaska Beverage Control Board, Governor Dunleavy signed SB 9 on June 16, 2022.

It's a big bill that affects in-state sellers as well as manufacturer direct shippers. Policy changes include extending the operating hours of tasting rooms (but not the daily drink limits), regulating how often certain events could be held at tasting rooms, and allowing municipalities to petition the Alaska Alcoholic Beverage Control Board for more licenses (currently, licenses are capped based on population). According to Alaska Senator Peter Micciche, the bill's sponsor, "SB 9 updates antiquated, burdensome alcohol laws" and cuts bureaucratic red tape.

This article focuses on new requirements SB 9 places on wineries, breweries, and distilleries that ship directly to consumers in Alaska.

PA-Armstrong-Indiana-Clarion Drug and Alcohol Commission Survey: Clarion County Youth Alcohol Use

Since 1989, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania has conducted a survey of students in the 6th, 8th, 10th, and 12th grades to understand their behavior, attitudes, and knowledge concerning alcohol, tobacco, other drugs, and violence.

This survey, sponsored and conducted by the Pennsylvania Department on Crime and Delinquency, is given every two years. The data gathered by the Pennsylvania Youth Survey (PAYS) provides school administrators, state agency directors, legislators, and others with information about the changes in youth use of alcohol, tobacco, other drugs, and violence. PAYS also is an assessment of risk factors that are related to these behaviors and protective factors that help guard against them. This information allows community leaders to direct prevention resources to areas where they will likely have the greatest impact.

Armstrong-Indiana-Clarion Drug and Alcohol Commission (AICDAC) has analyzed the information presented in the PAYS data specific to Clarion County. Alcohol is one of the top substances used by youth in Clarion County and because of this during the month of June, the focus of the breakdown is youth alcohol use in Clarion County.

CANNRA Holds Annual Member Meeting, Elects New Board Members

The Cannabis Regulators Association (CANNRA) – a non-partisan, non-profit 501(c)(4) organization that convenes government officials involved in cannabis regulation from more than 40 states and territories – held their first in-person member meeting in Olympia, Washington on June 8-9, 2022. The two-day meeting included more than 150 government officials from 33 different states and territories and focused on: • a debrief of an external stakeholder meeting that CANNRA held with a diverse array of regulatory stakeholders, • updates from CANNRA special committees, • specific discussions about lab testing, licensing, equity, hemp, and medical cannabis, and • discussions about CANNRA’s goals for the coming year.,

NIAAA Expands Outreach to Diverse Audiences with New Factsheet Translations

Providing information in multiple languages can help extend the reach of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism’s (NIAAA) resources. Many visitors to NIAAA’s website come from countries where languages such as Spanish, Tagalog, Japanese, and Chinese are spoken.

Indicators of Human Trafficking

TTB Newsletter for June 17, 2022