Liquor store clerk's case to stay in Lucas County Common Pleas Court

Charges added to man who sold alcohol to teen before fatal crash

4/25/2014

Two misdemeanor underage sales charges will remain on Lucas County Common Pleas Judge Michael Goulding’s docket, the court’s administrative judge ruled Thursday.

Judge Goulding had asked Judge Stacy Cook to transfer the two new charges brought against Nicholas Thompson, an employee of Foxx Liquor, to Toledo Municipal Court, but Judge Cook denied the request. According to her order, when an indictment is brought against a defendant for a misdemeanor, the court may either keep the case or transfer it to the municipal court, but that transfer must occur within 14 days of the indictment.

Mr. Thompson, 38, of 340 S. Reynolds Rd. was indicted on the two new charges April 2 so “the request for transfer is beyond the 14-day limitation,” the order states.

Mr. Thompson is serving a six-month jail sentence for selling or furnishing intoxicating liquor to a minor for a Feb. 1, 2013, incident in which he sold a bottle of vodka to a 17-year-old Ottawa Hills youth without asking him for identification.

A friend of the youth, Brian Hoeflinger, 18, of Ottawa Hills was killed in a drunken-driving crash later that night after consuming the vodka.

Mr. Thompson, who had a conviction for underage sales, was tried before a jury in common pleas court and sentenced April 15 to the maximum jail term by Judge James Bates.

He is to be arraigned Wednesday before Judge Goulding on the new charges.

Judge Goulding, a former municipal court judge, said Thursday that he has “tried more than 325 misdemeanors while at municipal court and will provide a fair and impartial forum for the trial of this misdemeanor case.”