Liquor Store Owner Sentenced to 45 Days

A store owner caught by police surveillance selling alcoholic beverages to minors was sentenced Thursday to 45 days in jail after pleading no contest to misdemeanor charges, authorities said.

Jerzy Slusarczyk, 47, of Panorama City was sentenced after pleas to two counts of selling alcoholic beverages to a minor and one count of creating a public nuisance, said Mike Qualls, a spokesman for the Los Angeles city attorney’s office.

San Fernando Municipal Judge John Gunn also sentenced Slusarczyk to three years’ probation, a condition of which is that he not sell alcoholic beverages to anyone who appears to be younger than 30, Qualls said.

Surveillance at Sunny’s Liquor Store in the 17000 block of Chatsworth Street began Feb. 9, after vice officers from the LAPD Devonshire Division identified the store as the possible source of alcohol sold to a 17-year-old boy who killed a 76-year-old man in a Feb. 1 car accident, Qualls said.

As a result of documented incidents, the city attorney’s office initially filed three counts of selling alcoholic beverages to a minor, Qualls said.

While that case was pending, vice detectives continued their surveillance and observed the fourth sale on May 23, according to Holly Beckner, the deputy city attorney who handled the case.

Beckner filed an additional count of selling alcohol to a minor and added the charge of creating a public nuisance.

Gunn ordered Slusarczyk to return to court on Sept. 16 to begin his jail term, Qualls said.