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Pinellas Nurse First To Test New Designated Driver Law

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By STEPHEN THOMPSON, The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 25, 2008

Updated: 01/25/2008 12:14 am

CLEARWATER - A 55-year-old Clearwater nurse is the first person to file a complaint against a bar since the Legislature passed a law protecting designated drivers last year, state officials said.

On Jan. 4, Rose Hamilton was at the Dirty Martini Lounge waiting for friends and had ordered a Bacardi and Diet Coke. Then, she says, she decided to stop drinking alcoholic beverages because she was "very likely" going to be the designated driver later that night, according to her complaint filed with the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation.

When she asked for coffee, she was told the bar didn't sell it, her complaint says. When she asked to order a soda, she says the manager told her to leave, the complaint says, and that he told her if she didn't leave, she would leave in handcuffs.

Hamilton thinks the bar manager's actions constitute a violation of the new law, which states that a bar cannot refuse to serve a person who is refusing to drink alcoholic beverages if that person is the designated driver for people who are buying drinks at the bar.

"If I choose not to drink, I don't want to drink," Hamilton said Thursday. "I was just shocked. I have never been asked to leave a bar when I choose not to drink."

Sam Farkas, spokesman for the Department of Business and Professional Regulation, confirmed that Hamilton's was the first complaint the state has received since the law went into effect in October.

Interpreting The Law

Whether it has merit remains to be seen. Hamilton's friends were not at the bar.

"I suppose an ultra-strict reading of the language is they have to be present at the time, but maybe the administrative court will take a broader look at it," said Tom Carey, a lawyer who helped Hamilton file the complaint. "Where do you draw the line? What if your friends are walking through the door and they are not yet seated at the bar?"

Rico Minasian, the manager who asked Hamilton to leave, doesn't think their confrontation had anything to do with her status as a would-be designated driver.

He said that after she had her drink, she wanted to switch to coffee but when she was told the bar didn't sell any, she raised a fuss. She asked him, "What kind of place is this?" and offered to buy him a coffee machine, he said.

"It was like an Abbott and Costello routine," he said. "I thought we were on 'Candid Camera.'"

Minasian said he told Hamilton to finish her drink and walked away, but then he spotted her pointing her finger at him from across the room and begin discussing the issue with a group of bar patrons. Next she ordered a soda and, when told it cost $4, she said that was absurd.

Left Before Police Were Called

At that point, Minasian told her to leave the bar at 25032 U.S. 19 N. or he would call the police. Hamilton left.

Minasian wondered how Hamilton could claim to be a designated driver if she showed up at his Clearwater bar in a taxi without anyone with her. Hamilton said she in all likelihood would have driven one of her friends' cars once they arrived.

Minasian also wondered why Hamilton left before he called police if she suspected he was in violation of the designated driver law.

"If you were so right about it, why don't you wait for the cops?" he said. "She never used the word designated driver. The whole thing was about me having coffee at my place."

"If you are using cabs and you are alone, I don't know who you are driving home," he said.

Reporter Stephen Thompson can be reached at (727) 451-2336 or spthompson@tampatrib.com.

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