THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, September 10, 1994 TAG: 9409100191
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MARC DAVIS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Medium: 94 lines
Scotty Miller was in the shower when the doorbell rang one Saturday morning. His teenage daughter and four friends were just waking from a pajama party. His 12-year-old son answered the door.
It was the law - about 15 agents from the Internal Revenue Service and the state Alcoholic Beverage Control Department.
``They didn't tell me anything,'' Miller recalled, ``except that they had a search and seizure warrant, stay on the couch and be quiet.''
Miller shut up and sat still. For the next seven hours, he said, the agents ripped apart his house, brought in a German shepherd and took nearly every scrap of paper they could find. Miller, who is general manager of the Jewish Mother restaurant, said he had no idea what was going on.
Simultaneously, other agents descended on the two Jewish Mother restaurants in Norfolk and Virginia Beach, and on the restaurant co-owner's house in Virginia Beach.
When the raids were over, the agents had confiscated a truckload of stuff: cash registers, receipts, price lists, computers, calendars, Rolodexes, telephones, even a car license plate. That was April 2.
On Thursday, five months after the raids, the IRS returned to the Oceanfront restaurant. A big yellow Ryder truck pulled up Pacific Avenue, rode the sidewalk, then three young men unloaded all the boxes and equipment that the IRS and ABC had taken in April.
There was no apology, only a terse explanation: The investigation is over. There will be no charges.
So ended the most nerve-wracking and confusing five months in the lives of Scotty Miller and restaurant co-owner John Colaprete. To this day, Miller said, he has no idea what the agents were looking for or what their investigation found.
``We were pretty freaked out,'' Miller said. ``It was like a knockout blow from Tyson. We just tried to keep on going. We knew we had done nothing wrong.''
On Friday, the agencies involved in the case refused to talk about it:
The IRS said it cannot comment on investigations. A spokeswoman referred all questions to the U.S. attorney's office.
The U.S. attorney's office said no one was available.
The ABC Department confirmed that the IRS investigation is over, but could not say what it was about or what was found. A spokesman said there is still an ``ongoing investigation'' by the ABC ``with administrative charges pending,'' but would not discuss details.
All of which frustrates Scotty Miller. ``We still don't know, to this day, exactly what happened,'' Miller said.
It began in March when Miller fired the Jewish Mother's bookkeeper and told police she had embezzled money. He said Thursday that the woman - Deborah A. Shofner, 30, of Virginia Beach - took about $50,000.
But Shofner was never arrested in Virginia Beach. An arrest warrant was issued in May charging her with felony embezzlement, but she was already in jail in North Carolina, a police spokesman said. It is not known why or where Shofner was arrested.
Meanwhile, Miller said, Shofner began making accusations against the restaurants. Two weeks after she was fired, the IRS and ABC agents conducted their raids.
That day, the Virginia Beach Jewish Mother had to close about eight hours. The restaurant lost $10,000 to $20,000 in business on that day alone, Colaprete said.
Quickly, rumors of the raid and the investigation spread. Business fell, along with the restaurant's reputation at the Oceanfront, Miller said.
Meanwhile, the Norfolk Jewish Mother, which opened in December, had to close in August. Miller and Colaprete say the restaurant had no liquor license because the bookkeeper didn't get one. The manager and owner couldn't get a new license because of the IRS and ABC investigations.
``It created unbelievable turmoil, and over what?'' Colaprete asked. ``We don't know what.''
Last week, a federal prosecutor called the restaurant's attorney, Lucien B. Cox III, to say the investigation was over, there would be no charges and all the confiscated material would be returned, Cox said. Miller and Colaprete said they do not blame the IRS and ABC for doing their jobs, but they are frustrated it took so long to resolve, that so much material was taken and that the agencies still will not explain what happened.
``We're just glad it's over and we can get our business back in order,'' Miller said.
There is a lesson in this for fellow restaurateurs, Miller said. ``I hope that other restaurant owners understand what can happen to them with one disgruntled employee,'' he said. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo by L. TODD SPENCER, Staff
This Jewish Mother at 3108 Pacific Avenue in Virginia Beach was
raided April 2. Scotty Miller, center, checks returned boxes.
KEYWORDS: JEWISH MOTHER RAID INVESTIGATION VIRGINIA ALCOHOLIC
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