Maui resort
fined $50,000 for
liquor violations

Underage drinkers were served
before a teen fell to her death

WAILUKU » The Hyatt Regency Maui Resort & Spa in Kaanapali has been fined $50,000 for serving alcohol to two underage drinkers who had been socializing with a Hula Bowl cheerleader before she fell to her death in January.

It's the highest fine ever imposed by the Maui County Liquor Adjudication Board, which cited the resort for 25 liquor violations, all connected to Donald L. Devorss, 19, and Erik B. Larson, 20.

The Folsom, Calif., men occupied a ninth-floor hotel room from where 18-year-old New Jersey cheerleader Lauren Crossan fell to her death.

During yesterday's hearing, the resort admitted no wrongdoing, but it extended its sympathies to Crossan's parents.

Crossan, whose body was found near the foot of a hotel tower on the morning of Jan. 12, was legally drunk, and her death has been classified as accidental by police.

Attorney James Krueger, who represented Crossan's parents, Charles and Diane, at the hearing, said he was happy with the investigation and the high fine, but believed the penalty should have been higher.

Krueger said the board treated the three-day string of violations involving different bartenders and servers as a single strike against the hotel, rather than repeated incidents.

"If they had been doing it for a week, would it have been a single strike?" he asked.

Hyatt Regency general manager Barry Lewin, whose firm agreed to the fine in a plea agreement, said his employees are trained to follow liquor rules, but Devorss and Larson used other people's identification cards to purchase liquor.

Hyatt attorney Derek Kobayashi said Devorss and Larson deceived the hotel.

Crossan and two other Randolph High School seniors from New Jersey were selected by the National Cheerleaders Association to be among several hundred cheerleaders performing during half-time at the Hula Bowl.

In a letter read before the board, Charles Crossan wrote that he and his wife will forever feel the loss of their daughter.

"We lost our daughter who came home not with a smile and the tales of a glorious stay in Hawaii but in a body bag," the letter said.

"The young girls had just completed an exhausting transcontinental and trans-Pacific flight to Maui," the letter continued. "They were especially vulnerable as they were under age, severely jet-lagged and heat stressed from the Jacuzzi. This was our daughter's first and last trip to your paradise."

Deputy Prosecutor Angela Hedge said the fines reflected the seriousness of the offense.

She said in addition to other violations, a server delivered to Devorss eight mai tai drinks and a peppermint schnapps for a gathering of people at a common Jacuzzi at about 10:30 p.m. on Jan. 11 and the server did not check if each person was of drinking age.