Man Faces Charges on Liquor Sales

The owner of a Van Nuys liquor store that police say is known to local teenagers as an easy place to buy booze will face multiple charges of selling alcohol to minors, the Los Angeles district attorney’s office said.

Ghassan Sayej, 33, owner of At Express Liquor, 5658 Sepulveda Blvd., was charged with 10 counts of underage liquor sales, Deputy City Atty. Laura Van Eyk said. Store clerk Katarzyna Oszszyk, 36, was charged with nine counts.

Sayej said he had no comment when reached at the store Tuesday night. Oszszyk was not available for comment, he said.

Responding to an anonymous tip, vice detectives from the Los Angeles Police Department watched the store on two nights in January and February, and found 15 customers between the ages of 16 and 18 leaving the store with rum, beer, malt liquor and wine, prosecutors said. Police said that on two occasions, Oszszyk took beer out the back door and put it in the teenagers’ cars.

“You should see some of [them],” Van Eyk said of the patrons. “They looked like babies.”

Each individual count carries a potential fine of $1,000 or six months in jail, she said.

Police said that among students at Notre Dame High School in Sherman Oaks and Crespi Carmelite High in Encino, the store had a reputation as an easy place to buy liquor.