Folsom restaurant’s liquor license suspended after underage worker was served alcohol
The California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control on Friday suspended the liquor license of a Folsom sushi restaurant, where an underage employee was served alcohol on the night she died in a car crash.
The 45-day suspension, which prohibits alcohol sales at Catch a Wave by Blue Nami restaurant, is the result of a state investigation of the business that led to the arrests of two restaurant employees last year, according to a news release from ABC, the state agency that enforces compliance with California’s alcoholic beverage laws.
The alcohol suspension at the restaurant will remain in effect until Feb. 28. Along with the suspension, a stayed revocation was ordered for the sushi restaurant for three years. That means ABC can revoke Blue Nami’s liquor license if a similar violation occurs within the next three years.
ABC agents were at the restaurant Friday and posted a sign indicating Blue Nami’s alcohol suspension.
Blue Nami employees Tomas Green, 47, of Folsom and Jae Jo, 28, of Sacramento were arrested in late February of last year, each accused of furnishing alcohol to a minor, resulting in death. Green faced an additional charge accusing him of over-serving an intoxicated customer, ABC officials have said.
Green and Jo allegedly served alcohol to Yasmina Azamatova, 20, of Antelope at Blue Nami, which is in Folsom’s Palladio shopping center.
Azamatova died in a single-vehicle crash in the early hours of Sept. 20, 2019, along East Bidwell Street and Oak Avenue Parkway, less than two miles from Blue Nami. Azamatova, the only occupant of the vehicle, was pronounced dead at the scene, authorities said.
On the same night Azamatova was served alcohol at Blue Nami and died in the crash, Green served alcohol to an “obviously intoxicated” 21-year-old restaurant customer, ABC officials said.
The customer left the restaurant and was later arrested by the California Highway Patrol on suspicion of driving under the influence. After further investigation, ABC charged Green with allegedly serving alcohol to the intoxicated customer.
