*This story was updated at 10:23 p.m.

WICHITA FALLS (KFDX/KJTL) — After a series of Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission undercover stings last month, the owner of a downtown Wichita Falls bar is charged with selling to an intoxicated person.

Stacy Hawkins was booked into jail and also bonded out today, June 9.

The TABC said a joint operation with Sheppard Air Force Base Special Investigations was conducted on May 12, 2023, to investigate complaints of businesses selling to underage or intoxicated Air Force personnel.

TABC agents and an SAFB OSI agent in plain clothes were in the bar working undercover. Agents began watching a man in the bar who appeared obviously intoxicated who had glassy, bloodshot eyes, was talking very loudly with slurred speech and was swaying while standing.

They observed him approach the back bar area and order a drink from a female bartender, who declined to serve him. The man then went to a male bartender, who told the customer he could finish the drink he already had, but he wasn’t getting another one.

An agent followed the customer down a hallway, where he staggered to the front bar and leaned over to speak to the owner, Hawkins. He said Hawkins picked up a pint glass, filled it with ice and poured vodka and mixer in it and gave it to the customer.

Another agent came and escorted the customer outside, and said he had to assist the customer to prevent him from falling. The customer was asked how long he had been in the bar, and he said maybe two hours, and didn’t know how much he had drank but didn’t think he was that intoxicated.
A bar employee volunteered to drive the customer home.

Agents then went to the office to speak to Hawkins and said she told them she did not think the customer was intoxicated and because of an injury, he always walked with difficulty, and that she had seen him “drunker” in other instances in her bar.

The bar tap for the customer listed 2 large vodkas, 2 small Fireball whiskys, 1 large and 1 small schnapps, and 1 green tea mixed beverage.

Hawkins again denied the customer was intoxicated, telling KFDX & Texoma’s Fox that the customer walks with a limp from a previous surgery. 

She and the customer also claimed tonight that he was not cut off by the back bartenders, and that the shots were for a group of people and not just him. He also said he was denied at least one sobriety test during the incident from officers.  Hawkins said she was originally only given a warning, and as a former police officer, she is very upset at having to turn herself in to be arrested. She said she plans to fight the charge. 

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