Bartender charged after falling death

Underagewoman fell from balcony on second floor.

Abartender at CLEVELAND— a downtown Cleveland bar faces a criminal charge of selling alcohol to a 20-yearold woman who fell from a second floor balcony on St. Patrick’s Day and remains unconscious more than six months later.

Carisa Buehner, 29, is charged with selling alcohol to someone under 21 years old, a first-degree misdemeanor. A summonswas issued in July but Buehner has not yet shown up for court.

Attempts to reach Buehner were unsuccessful.

Buehner was working on St. Patrick’sDay at Spirits on West 6th streetwhenshe sold three mixed vodka drinks to Megan Keefe, 20, according to court records.

Keefewent to the bar with threefriendsandmetupwith another person. The group walked upstairs to the second-floor bar and ordered the drinks.

Agents with theOhioInvestigative Unit watched surveillance footage from the bar and saw Beuhner take Keefe’s order and give her the drinks without asking for her ID, court records say.

Keefe fell headfirst about 15 feet fromthe second floor and struck her head on a granite railing. The impact ripped a chunk of granite off the railing andleftKeefewith a bleeding on her brain and fractures to her skull, vertebrae and eye socket.

Surveillance videos from the bar do not showexactly howKeefe fell, court records say. But the Cleveland Fire Department building inspectors cited the bar for having an unsafe railing on the second floor. The bar was also not certified to have patrons on the second floor of the bar.

Patrons called over another bartender, identified as Nick Urso. Urso notified an off-duty Cleveland police officerworking security at the bar. He called for an ambulance while Urso picked up Keefe in a bear hug around her chest and carried her to the sidewalk outside the bar, according to court records.

Keefe went to MetroHealth, where she stayed until her family moved her to a long-term assisted-living facility in Parma. She remains unconscious and needs round-the-clock care, according to a lawsuit her parents filed against the bar.

Keefe has racked up more than $1 million in medical costs and her family estimates it will cost $10 million to care for her the rest of her life.

Buehner’s criminal case is holding up proceedings at the Ohio Liquor Control Commission that will ultimately decide whether or not to revoke Spirits liquor license or issue another type of sanction.

The barwas cited for selling to underage patrons.

Ohio Attorney General spokeswoman Dorcas Taylor Jones said their attorneys, who handle the liquor control cases, have towait until that case is closed before theymove forward with the liquor control hearing.

Taylor Jones said that they sent the bar owners a questionnaire last month to see if they would contest the citation.