Two charged with underage alcohol sales

 

April 22, 2018



Periodically, local law enforcement does checks to see if stores are complying with the age restriction on alcohol sales. Someone under age 21 is sent into stores to attempt an alcohol purchase while being monitored by an officer. On Thursday, April 19, two store employees were charged in Woods County District Court.

According to court records, on Friday, April 13, at 8:40 p.m. a male 19-year-old went into Cimarron Wine and Spirits in Waynoka. He was able to purchase a pint of Jim Beam whiskey using money provided by Deputy Adam Honeyman who had recorded the serial number.

The 19-year-old described the clerk as an older man with grey hair and grey facial hair. Deputy Honeyman entered the store with the whiskey and talked to John Cole who said the undercover buy was no good because no member of the sheriff’s department was present. Cole said he would be calling the ABLE commission and would be fighting the citation, Cole refunded the purchase with the same $20 he had been given for the whiskey.

John Russell Cole, 71, of Waynoka has been charged with selling or furnishing alcoholic beverage to a minor, a felony. This crime is punishable by imprisonment for not more than five years and/or $2,500 to $5,000 fine.

In another case on April 13 at 7:30 p.m. a 19-year-old went into Love’s Country Store in Alva. He was supplied with a $20 bill with serial number recorded. Deputy Honeyman watched the man enter the store with nothing in his hands and exit the store carrying a six-pack of Budweiser longneck bottles. The man told Honeyman the clerk who sold him the beer was Joedie Edstrom. Honeyman’s marked patrol vehicle’s in-car video was used to record the man going into and leaving the store.

Honeyman entered the store where he talked with Edstrom. She said she knew the male was not old enough to purchase beer but sold it to him anyway. She said she had met the male when he was a jailer for the county and she was an inmate.

The manager on duty refunded the purchase to Honeyman and the $20 bill was returned to him. In his affidavit, Honeyman reported Edstrom was very argumentative and unhappy. She believed she was targeted on the purchase. Honeyman explained that he didn’t even know she worked there.

Joedie Ann Edstrom, 39, of Alva has been charged with a misdemeanor of selling or furnishing beer to a minor or allow on premises. This crime is punishable by imprisonment for not more than one year and a fine up to $500.

 

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