State officials still mulling punishment for Billybob

After four minors were cited for using fake IDs to gain entrance to Billybob on Thursday night, officials from the state liquor control board said that it may take up to a week to determine if the popular campus bar will be cited.

"It's too early to tell if they got off scot-free," said Greg Harvat, a supervisor with the Pennsylvania State Police's Bureau of Liquor Control Enforcement.

However, Billybob co-owner Jack Rinkers said the people caught had signed waivers with the bar saying that they were of age and had valid identification, thus releasing the bar from any liability.

"The liquor control board told us that we were doing a great job and gave it up," Rinkers said.

Harvat said the minors must be arraigned before a judge and face a fine of $300 if this was their first offense, plus the loss of their driver's license for 90 days.

Billybob co-owner Thomas Brassell said that despite several mechanisms for snaring potential underage drinkers -- including card swipers, bouncers and security cameras -- those who got through last week did so because they held actual licenses, but with fake information plugged in.

"They weren't altered licenses, they were real fake licenses which are impossible to catch," Brassell said, adding that the agents had to "stretch" to find even those fake IDs.

"The ones that they found, [the agents] weren't even sure that they were fake -- they had to look in a book to see," he said. "Now if the liquor control board has to look up in a book, how the hell would I catch that?"

However, Harvat maintained that at least one of the licenses was false.

Brassell said that he makes people carrying IDs from the states whose licenses are most often faked -- New York and New Jersey -- sign waivers before entering. In addition, two weekends ago, every patron was required to sign off that they were of age, resulting in about 750 signed waivers.

The waivers are a photocopy of the individual's photo ID, along with a statement certifying that the ID is theirs, that the picture is of them and that they are of legal drinking age. Harvat said that students caught after signing a waiver could also face charges of misrepresentation.

Rinkers said that they are in the process of establishing a new database system to manage all that paperwork to make the age verification process easier. Patrons who present a "Billybob Waiver Database Card" will be able to walk right in, while those without will have to sign another waiver.

"What the liquor control board wants is [for] us to do everything possible to make it as tight as possible, and we feel in our heads that this is the best way," Rinkers said.

Billybob, which reopened in September in its present bar format, was also inspected by the liquor control board during their second week of operation. Rinkers said despite no minors being found at that time, they were aware that some people were sneaking in and have learned from that experience.

"We weren't doing the job in the beginning, but we've really tightened up the ship," he said. "In the last four weeks it's tough to get in the door."

However, some patrons of Billybob last night disagreed.

"You have to show something, but what you show doesn't really matter," College sophomore Lilia Tamm said.

But College sophomore Baruch Zalcer said that the bar's enforcement mechanisms were working.

"They're definitely tough at the door," he said. "There are a couple of bouncers outside and everybody who comes through gets carded."

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