Metro police burglary detective Archie Spain has a nice little business going. Unfortunately, it’s illegal.
According to two Metro police officers and others close to the police force, Spain has sold cases of Miller Genuine Draft and Miller Lite beer out of his garage for at least the past two years.
His price to fellow officers: $6 a case. With 24 cans in a case, that’s four beers for a dollar. How can he afford to sell the beer at such low prices? Even a discount package store like Frugal MacDoogal’s must pay wholesale prices of just over $15 for cases of Miller beer.
Spain wouldn’t return phone calls, and police spokesman Don Aaron wouldn’t comment, except to say: “The beer obtained by Spain was not done with the knowledge of the police department administration.” But here’s one possible explanation: DET Distributing Co. has given “around 100 cases” of Miller beer to the police department “in the last year or so,” the firm’s spokesman, Jeff Bradford, told the Scene. And who picked up that beer for the department? You guessed it—Spain. He told fellow officers he took the beer home in his squad car.
It was “assumed” that Spain was “acting on behalf of the police department,” Bradford said, and it was “management’s understanding” that the beer was to have been used for unspecified “charitable purposes.”
“We’re not aware that Spain has been selling the beer,” Bradford said.
It should be noted that Spain gave 40 or 50 cases to courthouse insiders playing in charity golf tournaments in 1996 and 1997. That’s according to Nashville attorney Tommy Overton, who organized the golf outings.
Pat Craddock, executive director of the Metro Beer Permit Board, said it’s illegal to sell beer without a permit in Davidson County.
There might be another little legal problem for Spain here. It’s unclear whether he reports income from beer sales to the Internal Revenue Service. Spain didn’t bother giving receipts to the cops who say they bought his beer. Must have been just an oversight on his part.
