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Hey, kids: You might lie to the police officer who doubts you're old enough to drink, but your mom won't

An underage New Jersey woman with a driver's license that wasn't hers got herself and the Sidebar on Bromfield Street in trouble in December when a BPD detective on a routine inspection spotted her with a Bud Light and ferreted out her real age - by calling her mother.

Sgt. Det. William Gallagher and Det. William Mulvey told the Boston Licensing Board this morning that when they entered the Sidebar on Dec. 31, their attention was immediately drawn to a table of four young women.

Three handed over valid New Jersey licenses all showing they were 21. The fourth woman, though, gave Mulvey a New Jersey license showing her age as 25.

Mulvey said this made him suspicious because in his training, young drinkers tend to segregate themselves by age. Also, the woman didn't really look like the photo on the license, he said - her hair was in bangs, rather than pulled back as in the photo and her facial features just didn't seem to jibe.

Still, he said, the woman persisted. "I said this is not you," he recalled telling her. "She was very stubborn and insisting it was her." So Mulvey asked her for her mother's number in New Jersey - and when he got through, the woman confirmed the detective's suspicion that her daughter was, in fact, only 20.

That was good enough for a citation that had the bar hauled before the licensing board today.

Bar attorney Richard Scimone said this was the first time in 13 years the bar has been cited for serving an underage person.

And he tried to challenge Mulvey and Sgt. Det. William Gallagher on how the bar could have possibly known the woman with a valid New Jersey license was not who she said she was. Gallagher said looking at the woman's face and then the license was one way.

Unlike bars in certain other parts of town he could mention, the Sidebar is right near Suffolk Law School, where inter-age friendships are more common, he said, adding it's location downtown also attracts people who work in the same office who might be of different ages.

The board decides Thursday what action, if any, to take against the bar. Gallagher said the woman faces a criminal complaint.

Earlier:
Marshfield teen learns 02127 isn't a Zip code in New York.

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Comments

Does anyone really think the bar should be brought to the board on this? Also:

her hair was in bangs, rather than pulled back as in the photo

Because your hair must ALWAYS looks like it did in your license's photo, right? The facial features, sure, nice catch there, and good work -- it seems he had some good instincts on this one. But I still really don't see the bar being at fault here. Seems a bit absurd.

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The cop had to call her mom to confirm his suspicions...did he expect Sidebar to do the same? Sounds like she had a pretty legit fake ID if he couldn't tell without the phone call.

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On New Year's Eve, that's all the officers had to do?

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Had the night off, so the BPD did have any "watch others people work" details. How else would they accumulate unnecessary OT.

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I do believe the two officers involved are members of the Licensed Premises Unit, whose job it is to ensure licensed premises, which serve alcoholic beverages, are following the law. So, yeah, I would say they didn't have anything better to do than the responsibilities that come with their positions in the department.

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I think it is fair to ask why we are wasting the resources of the police department on this when one would think that there are more pressing public safety concerns than busting people who would be of legal drinking age pretty much anywhere else outside of the Arab world?

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Agreed. I'm betting she had her sibling's license.

Still, calling the MOM?? Well, it's a good thing that her mom didn't lie for the daughter, I'll give her credit there. I could see some parents doing just that.

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Most parents would become very scared if a Boston cop called in the middle of the night asking what's the age of their child. If I got a call like that I'd be worried the officer was calling to confirm the ID on a body.

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and many of them have kids and spouses -- she/he would have allayed those fears before they even arose in Mama's mind.

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With age comes wisdom. She knows not to cooperate with a cop anymore now. Why in the hell did she give him her mother's phone number?

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