Former Alcohol Agent Sentenced for Bribery

A former investigator for the state Alcoholic Beverage Control agency’s Inglewood office has been sentenced to three years’ probation and 200 hours of community service after pleading no contest to bribery charges.

Debra L. Bender, 30, also must pay a $300 fine stemming from allegations that she solicited $2,000 from a Hawthorne liquor store manager while she was an agent in exchange for assuring that his liquor license transfer “would have no problems,” prosecutors said.

Before she was arrested in May, Bender had collected $1,000 from S & D Liquor manager Thomas Carter, threatening to hold up the transfer of the license and jeopardizing the sale of the store.

The no contest plea allows Bender to deny any wrongdoing, although she is punished as if she were found guilty. Bender, who had been with the agency for seven years, has been fired.