The mimosa verdict is in, and it is guilty.
Columbus Recorder's Court Judge Michael Cielinski this morning found bridal shop owner and West Point, Ga., city councilwoman Judy Wilkinson guilty of violating a city ordinance by serving champagne and orange juice cocktails to customers at her Veterans Parkway business Formal Elegance. Cielinski gave her a penalty of 30 days’ probation.
Wilkinson immediately filed an appeal to state court. Her attorney, Ben Wilcox, maintains the city code she's accused of violating is unconstitutional because it says no one in a business may possess alcohol without an alcohol license. "Prohibition went away a long time ago," he said, referring to the country’s attempt to ban alcohol altogether.
Wilkinson was arrested Saturday after an undercover police officer pretending he was shopping for a tuxedo saw mimosas being served at her the 6002 Veterans Parkway bridal shop.
In court today, Sgt. William Gasaway of the police department’s special operations unit testified that police had received at least four complaints about Wilkinson serving alcohol. When Wilcox asked who complained, the sergeant said at least one complaint came from a former employee of the shop, another came from a worker’s relative, and a third came from the mother of a 17-year-old who claimed her daughter was offered a mimosa at Formal Elegance, even though she was too young to drink legally.
Wilcox also asked Gasaway if police had pursued similar cases since Columbus Council passed a more restrictive alcohol law in March. Gasaway said he could think of two other cases, both of which resulted in guilty verdicts.
Asked if police still were getting similar complaints, Gasaway said: “I’ve been receiving a whole lot more since this has hit the newspaper.”
Accounts of Wilkinson’s arrest have spread through the Internet, provoking outrage from some readers who remarked that beauty salons, jewelry shops and other businesses routinely serve customers wine or champagne. Assistant City Attorney Jaimie DeLoach said those businesses also would be in violation of the city law and subject to the same treatment Wilkinson got.
Wilkinson said after today’s hearing that when Gasaway saw mimosas being served Saturday, he summoned five other officers who came rushing into her shop with badges raised, shouting “Columbus police!” and demanding she surrender the champagne. At the time she was showing customers new wedding gowns, she said. She was handcuffed, booked into the county jail, and detained for about two hours, she said.
In court today she held up one of the plastic glasses in which mimosas were served, estimating it to be about 2 ounces. “My mouthwash has more alcohol than my mimosa,” she remarked after the hearing.
According to DeLoach, Wilkinson, 41, broke two laws, a city ordinance and a state statute.
The city ordinance says: “It shall be unlawful for any person, corporation, partnership or other legal entity to possess, sell, or possess for the purpose of sale at any business location or transport for the purpose of sale, any alcoholic beverage where the person does not have a valid alcoholic beverage license.”
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