Clerk Cleared of Selling Beer Tied to Crash

A jury acquitted a liquor store clerk Friday and was unable to reach a verdict against the store’s owner on charges that the pair sold beer to teens involved in a desert crash that killed four students from Katella High School.

Prosecutors accused clerk Muhammed Hosain and Anaheim store owner Masood Zaman of misdemeanor counts of selling alcohol to the minors hours before the fatal crash.

A jury at Municipal Court in Fullerton, however, rejected the charges against Hosain, who denied that he was working the night prosecutors say the beer was sold.

Jurors also found Hosain not guilty of a second charge that the clerk sold alcohol to a 19-year-old woman on Aug. 9, 1995, less than two weeks after the desert crash.

Jurors deadlocked on the single charge against Zaman, owner of Me-N-Paul’s Market.

Anaheim Assistant City Atty. Pat Ahle said Friday that he had not decided whether to seek a new trial for Zaman.

During trial, jurors heard testimony alleging that Zaman and Hosain sold six- and 12-packs of beer to the teenagers July 28, 1995.

The jury was not told that some of the minors who allegedly bought the liquor later died in a crash near Victorville. Four youths, ages 16 to 18, were killed.

James Virgil Patterson), now 18, the driver of the 1987 Chevrolet Suburban, survived the crash. He was sentenced to four months in jail for vehicular manslaughter and driving with a 0.17% blood-alcohol level--more than twice the legal limit for adults.

The prosecution alleged that Patterson showed fake identification at the store that allowed his friends to buy beer.

The owner said he could not recall the youths, and the clerk denied that he had made the sale and said he wasn’t working that night.

Defense attorney Edward R. Munoz, who represented both men, contended during trial that store employees may be excused for selling alcohol to minors if they had examined identification in good faith.

Munoz said the teenagers must take some responsibility for using fake ID.

“Teenagers can be very sophisticated and have a lot of ingenuity and resourcefulness,” he told jurors. “We were all teenagers.”

On June 28, Municipal Judge Gregg L. Prickett will convene a hearing to consider a possible retrial for Zaman.

The California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control has set an administrative hearing for June 19 and 20 in Santa Ana to review the market’s liquor license.

Despite Friday’s verdicts, Carl Falletta, the ABC’s assistant director, said the department will continue to recommend revocation of the liquor license because of the teen deaths.