Feliz Hernandez, owner of Hernandez Liquors on Broad Street makes his appearance before the Providence Board of Licenses yesterday.

The Providence Journal / Mary Murphy

PROVIDENCE — The city Board of Licenses yesterday slapped a South Providence liquor store with a two-day license suspension as punishment for selling alcohol to a visibly drunken man.

“We need to send a clear message out to all liquor establishments,” said Andrew J. Annaldo, board chairman.

The punishment of Hernandez Liquors, 1032 Broad St., is the result of a complaint by the police, who watched the store one morning after Channel 12 news broadcast an investigative report saying that the store was selling to obviously drunken people.

Hernandez Liquors is one of four liquor stores that the police recently have targeted with license complaints; the other stores have been accused of illegally selling alcohol to minors.

By statute, it is a criminal offense for a liquor licensee to sell alcohol “to any intoxicated persons or to any person of notoriously intemperate habits.” But the police opted instead to bring a complaint against the license of Hernandez Liquors.

In a hearing at City Hall yesterday, police Detective John St. Lawrence testified that he saw a man who was staggering outside the store on Nov. 5 take a swig from a pint-sized bottle of vodka, stuff the bottle into a coat pocket and go inside and buy another pint bottle of vodka from proprietor Felix Hernandez.

The apparently drunken man, later identified as William Redding, of 1 Cadillac Drive, emerged from the store at the corner of Broad and Elma street and managed to cross busy Broad on his own. At that point, St. Lawrence accosted Redding, saw that he was somewhat disheveled, unsteady on his feet, that his eyes were bloodshot and that he had to lean on St. Lawrence’s unmarked police car for support as he talked in a slurred voice.

Redding had with him a partially consumed bottle of Poland Spring vodka and an unopened bottle of Crown Russe vodka that he had just bought at Hernandez Liquors, St. Lawrence testified.

Assistant City Solicitor Steven L. Catalano, who prosecuted the case, asked the board to impose a fine and/or a license suspension.

“This thing needs to hurt,” Catalano said, to ensure that there is no repeat offense.

Gregory P. Hazian, Hernandez’s lawyer, told the board, “He feels very badly about this whole incident. … It was nothing done maliciously.” Hazian said his client would not let it happen again, and he suggested that the board settle for ordering Hernandez to attend an alcohol-dispensing education course.

Through a store employee who translated, the Spanish-speaking Hernandez denied selling to drunks. But his testimony was cut short when Catalano objected to the employee serving as a translator.

Hernandez Liquors previously was before the board on a complaint of selling to a minor, Hazian acknowledged, but the complaint apparently was older than what the board calls its three-year “look-back” period. In considering whether a licensee is a repeat offender, the board generally only notes infractions that have occurred within the previous three years.

The board voted unanimously to have the store closed Dec. 20-21 and to command Hernandez to surrender his license by the close of the city’s business day on Dec. 19.

Neither Hazian nor Hernandez would comment after the hearing.

In other cases, the board this week fined Federal Hill Liquors, 150 Acorn St., and Nocera’s liquor store, 969-971 Smith St., $1,500 and $750, respectively, for selling alcohol to people younger than 21, which is the legal age for possessing alcohol.

Another complaint for selling to an underage person is pending against SNM Liquors, 187 Douglas Ave.

On Aug. 30, according to a police report, officers caught four people who were 18 and 19 years old, two of whom were Roger Williams University students, buying beer and distilled spirits at Federal Hill Liquors. The four buyers and the clerk all were charged criminally.

On Sept. 1, the police returned and caught three underage students from Johnson & Wales University buying beer and spirits at Federal Hill Liquors. They were charged criminally.

And again on Sept. 6, the police caught a 19-year-old male after he bought a bottle of vodka and a bottle of grain alcohol at the store. Both the 19-year-old buyer and a 19-year-old male who was driving a car in which he was a passenger were criminally charged.

At Nocera’s, the police said, clerks should have detected fake IDs that underage buyers were using.

On Sept. 20, the police caught a 19-year-old male with a bottle of alcohol that he bought at Nocera’s, and he was charged criminally.

One-half hour later, they caught a 20-year-old male with bottles of rum and vodka bought at Nocera’s. Both the 20-year-old male and a 20-year-old female who was driving a car in which he was a passenger were charged criminally.

That same night, the police caught a 20-year-old male with two 30-packs of beer bought at Nocera’s. He was charged criminally, too.

The police returned the next two nights as well.

On Sept. 21, two 20-year-old beer buyers ran into the police after they left Nocera’s and were charged criminally.

The next night, officers said they watched as a store employee placed a keg of beer into a car being driven by a 19-year-old New Jersey man. The man drove away from the store, they stopped his car and seized the keg, and they gave him a court summons on a criminal charge of possession of alcohol.

gsmith@projo.com