She purchased three bottles of 40-ounce bottles of beer and one bottle of this pink wine cooler," said Market owner attorney John Forsythe.
Forsythe attorney represents Abduhl Azeem Buksh, the owner of the Good N Rich Drive Thru Market in South San Francisco. On February 4 2011, he says a regular customer -- a woman named Amelia Chin -- came to the market with her teenage daughter's friend, Margaret Qaqish, who was 17 years old. At 3:20 the next morning, Qaqish died in high speed accident on Highway 101. Authorities say her friend, the 19-year-old driver, had been drinking heavily. Who paid for the alcohol is at the center of the tragedy.
"The store should have checked the identification of the minor," said John Carr with the California Alcoholic Beverage Commission.
But according to California Alcoholic Beverage Control officials, they didn't.
"The minor tried to pay with a debit card, the transaction did not go through, so the minor left to get cash and came back in and purchased the alcohol. They left the store with the alcohol in Ms. Chin's hands and Ms. Chin then furnished the alcohol outside the store," said Carr.
"My client did not sell to a minor. My client sold to an adult, an adult who put that purchase on her tab, on her balance that she has with the store," said Forsythe.
Buksh, along with 51-year-old Chin, both face charges of providing alcohol to a minor-- arrests they say are part of a witch hunt.
"...A witch hunt. Just trying to pick somebody out to make somebody take care of this tragic thing, to make someone responsible for it," said Forsythe.
There is surveillance video showing the transaction. Meanwhile, the 19-year-old driver, who had a blood alcohol level twice the legal limit, could face four years in prison when he's sentenced on Feb. 3.
