One of president Donald Trump's golf courses has agreed to pay a $400,000 fine for overserving alcohol to a customer who later caused a fatal car crash in 2015, the Washington Post reported Wednesday.
However, in a victory for Trump's company, the state of New Jersey will allow the club in Colts Neck, N.J. — as well as two others owned by the former president in the state — to keep their liquor licenses.
The club pleaded no contest to administrative charges filed by the state Division of Alcoholic Beverages in 2019, alleging that it served alcohol to customer Andrew Halder when he was already intoxicated. On Aug. 30, 2015, Holder flipped his car four miles from the club, killing his father, who was ejected from the vehicle. Halder later pleaded guilty to vehicle manslaughter and was sentenced to three years of probation.
In addition to overserving Halder, the club was accused of serving alcoholic beverages other than beer from carts on the golf course.
"The state had originally sought to revoke the Colts Neck club's liquor license, a penalty that would have also revoked liquor licenses at Trump's two other New Jersey clubs," the Post's David Fahrenthold reports, referring to Bedminster and Pine Hill.
"Golf industry experts said that would have removed a major source of the clubs' revenue. ... Instead, the Colts Neck club will pay the $400,000 penalty, which is equivalent to 6.5 percent of its total revenue in 2020, according to Trump's presidential disclosure filings."
