Three BU students cost Theater District restaurant its license for two days

The Boston Licensing Board yesterday ordered Genki Ya, 232 Tremont St., shut for two days because BPD detectives caught three underage BU students with rum drinks - and the realistic-looking but fake out-of-state IDs they'd used to buy them.

At a hearing Tuesday, Sgt. Det. Robert Mulvey told the board that he and his partner arrived at the sushi place shortly after midnight on Nov. 5 and immediately noticed three young-looking women sitting at the bar with drinks.

The three at first denied having any IDs at all, but under further questioning, all produced fake out-of-state driver's licenses - with their photos embedded in them. "As soon as we saw (the women), we knew they would be fake," he said of the two 18-year-olds and one 19-year-old.

Restaurant attorney Dennis Quilty said the staffer who served them was fired because he or she never ran the licenses through the scanning device the restaurant has to check for fakes - since that would have meant going from the first-floor bar up to the second floor.

"It won't happen again," Quilty said.

Immediately after the hearing on this violation, the board held another hearing on Genki Ya. Mulvey's partner, Det. Daniel MacDonald, testify how, exactly one week later, the two detectives found two underage males, one a Fisher College student, the other a Suffolk University student, sitting at a table with shots of Jameson whiskey in front of them.

However, the board ruled the restaurant didn't do anything wrong in that case, because there was no proof the two had bought or were consuming the drinks. A restaurant manager testified the two were among a party of eight, all of whom tried to buy drinks but only four of whom were allowed to purchase alcohol because they had proof they were over 21.