It’s been a tumultuous six weeks for Blake Zingale. And now he is ready to restart his life.
Zingale, a former bartender at the Standing Room on Hermosa Ave., was arrested Sept. 24 following a sting operation conducted by the California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control. According to records from the investigation, two undercover agents, posing as customers, entered the bar multiple times to arrange purchase of cocaine from Zingale.
Zingale pleaded no contest to one count of sale of a controlled substance in Torrance Superior Court on Oct. 27, according to his attorney William Ringgold. Under the terms of the plea, Zingale will perform 90 days worth of community service, and serve three years of formal probation. At the end of that three-year period, Zingale will be eligible to petition the court to reduce the charges to a misdemeanor.
With the case settled, Zingale is eager to move beyond the mistake he made, and restore his name in the town he calls home.
“I accept full responsibility for what I did,” Zingale said. “In no way, shape or form am I trying to deny that. But I grew up here. Everyone I see, I have to give a 10 to 15 minute schpiel about how I am not some drug lord.”
Relying on information provided by the ABC and the Hermosa Beach Police Department, this newspaper and others linked Zingale to large quantities of drugs. Reports following his arrest indicated that a raid found felony-level quantities of narcotics at Zingale’s former residence in the 1400 block of Owosso Avenue.
Such reports were later found to be erroneous.
“There wasn’t any money or drugs at my place,” Zingale said. “I middle-manned some drugs for [the agents], that’s all.”
Investigator’s reports indicate that, for the count to which he pleaded, Zingale earned $10 for arranging the sale.
According to Zingale and his attorney, the only drugs found at the residence belonged to one of Zingale’s three roommates, and were in quantities suggesting personal use rather than sales.
Documents from the incident support this account.
“Narcotics and paraphernalia were found in room of Zingale’s roommate,” an ABC investigator’s report states. “No evidence linked to Zingale was found in the residence.”
The circumstances of the raid, with multiple agencies collaborating, suggested to Zingale’s attorney that the authorities had expected to find more drugs at Zingale’s home.
“I think they were disappointed that he wasn’t the head of the Cali Cartel,” said Ringgold.
A public information officer for the ABC said that the agency could provide no information on the case other than what was disclosed following Zingale’s arrest.
According to the investigator’s reports, two undercover agents from the ABC office in Lakewood began investigating the Standing Room after a tip that the place was employing an underaged bartender. No further evidence of this was found, but they did pursue a drug investigation.
Two agents, pretending to be from Orange County, told Zingale that they wanted to “party” and eventually procured cocaine on at least two occasions.
Zingale said the agents were persuasive and convincing actors, passing as young men from Irvine and Newport. He said that in retrospect the people involved seemed especially eager for the sale to occur at the restaurant.
“The ABC agents came in three or four times,” Zingale said. “They definitely picked the right guys to be relatable to someone my age.”
People seeking out drugs is part of life in the restaurant industry, Zingale said.
“I worked at a bar in downtown Hermosa,” Zinglae said. “It’s a party spot. You’d have to keep your ears closed to not know about it.”
However, Zingale said that such activity had never taken place at the Standing Room.
“The Standing Room is a great community spot and a family-friendly restaurant,” Zingale said. “This never happened there before me, and I’m sure it won’t happen again in the future.”
As of Monday, Nov. 16, the ABC’s License Query System showed no pending investigations of the restaurant.
Following his arrest, Zingale lost his bartending position. Future employment in the hospitality industry is unlikely.
“Blake’s career in the restaurant business is pretty much at a dead end,” Rinngold said.
Although the incident has cost him other job offers, Zingale is turning now training to be a camera assistant for a production company shooting television commercials.
As he looks ahead, Zingale had advice for others in the service industry put in his position.
“The obvious: be smart, say no, don’t do it at all,” he said.
