In the last few months of the COVID-19 shutdown, the California Department of Alcoholic Beverage and Control (ABC) cited three restaurants for failure to comply with state mandated regulations regarding COVID-19.
Restaurants that were cited by ABC were: Pismo’s Coastal Grill (twice) and Culichi Town of Fresno and The Local in Old Town Clovis.
Fresno County District Attorney Lisa Smittcamp has declined to file any charges against these restaurants.
The reason stated that the criminal charges were multi-faceted and had many legal issues regarding insufficient evidence and more.
Smittcamp issued the following statement regarding the reason to decline:
“The Legislation of the State of California and Governor Newsom continue to create and implement policies that promote the de-criminalization of activities that many in law enforcement consider to be harmful to the health and safety of Californians, yet they want to make criminals out of people who are trying to make a living, keep their employees working, and attempting to stimulate our local economy while also respecting the health and welfare of our community.
Each one of these establishments cited by ABC has worked with the Fresno County Department of Public Health to become compliant with the ever-changing, and sometimes confusing, regulations set out by the state. Under these circumstances, I will not make criminal this type of conduct during this difficult time in our state.”