Best Liquors hearing date reset to March
Boro agrees to attorney's request for postponement
BY MELISSA KARSH Staff Writer

RED BANK - The hearing date on the revocation of a west side liquor store's license has been pushed back to March 5, the date it was originally scheduled for before the hearing was expedited.

After prodding by local officials, the Best Liquors hearing date was expedited in October to Dec. 19, but store owner Pankaj "Sunny" Sharma's attorney asked that the hearing be adjourned to a later date since he was going to trial on an emergent matter.

"At this time I respectfully request that the hearing be adjourned. I have recently been retained to defend a law enforcement officer in a high-profile matter. As a result of this, I will be unable to attend the hearing and have had difficulty in arranging for another attorney to attend in my stead," wrote Samuel Reale, Sharma's attorney, in a Dec. 17 letter to Administrative Law Judge Joseph F. Martone.

Martone, who said in his reply letter that he was surprised at the adjournment request, had been scheduled to hear the case Dec. 19 at the Office of Administrative Law in Mercerville.

Reale, a member of the Willingboro law firm Kearns, Vassallo & Kearns, received consent from assistant borough attorney Thomas Hall before asking the judge for an adjournment.

"The guy is involved in an emergent situation. Customarily you are going to get an adjournment if you are on trial or involved in an emergent matter," Hall said Tuesday.

In a special hearing June 28, the Borough Council found Best Liquors liable on six charges, four of which included sale of alcohol to underage persons, and revoked the Leighton Avenue liquor store's alcohol distribution license.

The other charges included possession of a quantity of cigarettes without the required New Jersey Revenue Stamp and employing a person to sell alcohol at the store "who was not a registered employee authorized to sell alcoholic beverages," according to Hall.

The west side liquor store has continued to operate because Sharma's attorney appealed the council's revocation of the liquor license to Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC). The appeal stayed the revocation pending the ABC hearing.

Hall had filed a motion with the ABC to dissolve the stay of the revocation of Best Liquor's license on July 12 after police reported the fifth incident of selling alcohol to a person under the legal age occurred July 10 at the west side liquor store that has been the subject of complaints by neighboring residents.

A July 25 hearing before the ABC was canceled after the borough dropped new charges against Best Liquors.

In a July 19 letter, Hall said the borough was withdrawing a motion asking the ABC to lift the stay.

The borough also dropped the seventh charge against the store, which was selling alcohol to a minor after a 19-year-old man who bought alcoholic beverages on the evening of July 10, recanted his sworn statement and admitted he showed the clerk false identification, according to Hall.

The borough also canceled a July 26 special meeting on those charges.

Best Liquors first came onto the borough's radar when two neighbors of the liquor store, which is situated in a residential neighborhood, attended a council meeting last summer to complain about people loitering outside the store. The residents alleged that people were loitering outside the store and allegedly using and selling drugs. Residents also complained about quality-oflife issues like urinating in public and littering on the front lawns of neighbors.