CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (WZTV) — A small family-owned business took the Tennessee Alcohol Beverage Commission (ABC) to court claiming the ABC used trickery and deceit to write them a $5,000 citation for selling alcohol to a minor.

A judge agreed and said the Tenn. ABC’s tactics are a ruse and in violation of its laws.

Chuck Bordogna loves to say his family’s DNA is in this business.

This is about as “family” as a “family business” can get.

This leads us to the day the Tennessee ABC sent an agent and a minor on a sting operation to attempt to get Lookout Winery to sell alcohol to someone underage.

We know exactly what happened that day and you’re wondering, wait a minute, how would you know? Because there aren’t two sides to this story. Both sides agree on exactly what happened on that day in court. So here’s a mutually agreed-upon story you can read and judge for yourself.

An ABC agent walks in and asks about red wine, a teenager standing behind her never speaks. This is how it happened according to co-owner Nouhaa Bordogna:

“A woman comes in with a young man. The woman says she wanted to sample a couple red wines. She sampled them and then told me which one she wanted.

When she agreed that she wanted the Italian trios, I went back to the register to ring up her total and I told her, her total, how much it was, and she agreed to it.

So I went over to the cabinet, to to grab the bottle, which is right here. That’s our Italian trio. Then I walked back to the other side, on the off the counter to grab a bag. This is where we sealed our wines.

I put her in the bag for her, then I went back to my register to get her tickets, and at that moment, when I turned around, she’s on the phone, pretending be talking on the phone.

So I put the wine and her receipt toward her, and at that moment, I found $40 sitting on the counter. I grabbed the money, went back to my register, and grabbed 50 cents, that’s supposed to be her change.

I turned around, the young man reached over her with his hand out, so I put the 50 cents on his hand, and meantime, the phone rang. So I turned my back to answer the phone.

I didn’t see them when they were leaving.”

Minutes later, another ABC agent walks into the winery and hands the Bordognas a $5,000 citation for selling to a minor. Even though the minor had no interaction with Mrs. Bordogna.

Mrs. Bordogna couldn’t believe it. What customer? She didn’t even know what the minor looked like.

“I can’t even tell you because I never looked in his face. He had a hat… he actually has glasses and we never talked. It was a conversation between me and her.”

Co-owner and husband Chuck Bordogna adds, “…no conversion. The kid never drank. Never asked for the booze, which is what state statute says has to happen.”

The Bordognas were so mad about the citation, that they told the agent we are taking you to court over this.

“So then he has the sheer audacity to say they don’t understand why I’m mad,” says Mr. Bordogna. “Is it because I’m Italian? My grandfather was born in 1894 and fought in WWI… my dad fought in WWII.”

“I was brought up by people that you don’t let anybody push you around, and you don’t let an entity push you around.” said Bordogna.

The Bordognas not only took the Tenn. ABC to court, they won the case. The judge called it a ruse.

According to a legal definition, a ruse is, “designed to trick, mislead, encourage or confuse the employee.”

The judge said the Tenn. ABC actually violated the law with this tactic.

Yet the Bordognas big win is still expensive, they spent $40,000 out of their retirement accounts to fight the government and are still waiting to see if the Tenn. ABC will have to pay them back.

“Money, time, stresses on your daily life and you build up this business every day… hard work and for somebody to come in and, for like, less than five minutes writing a report against you and destroying your life, that’s not fair, “ said Nouhaa Bordogna.

So what does the Tenn. ABC have to say about what happened? Well, they are not defending it.

ABC Communications Director Aaron Rummage told us in a statement:

“This incident did not reflect our usual practices or high standards of enforcement. We remain dedicated to fair and impartial enforcement and will use this experience to provide additional training, reinforcing our commitment to upholding the highest level of professionalism in every case we handle.”

This isn’t enough says the Bordogna family, not even close.

“This is insane. These people don’t even need training. They need to be fired and they need firing all the way up to whoever makes that decision to allow this money to just keep pouring in and making sure this extortion keeps going. It’s a game, and it’s a bad game,” said Bordogna.

We have many more questions regarding this case and whether this kind of tactic has been used before. You can expect more stories in our investigation.