Ward County Sheriffs Department release
On March 3rd, 2024, at approximately 12:24 AM, the Ward County Sheriff’s Department
received a report of underage individuals in the Whiskey Bandits bar in Sawyer. Deputies responded
and located sixteen individuals less than twenty-one years of age inside the bar, all but two had been
consuming alcohol. A seventeenth person was later identified as being present as well. As a result of the
investigation, seventeen individuals were cited for minor in a liquor establishment and fifteen for
unlawful consumption of alcohol by a person not twenty-one years of age.
Cynthia Ellis (59 years old), who is also an owner of the bar, was on the scene and operating the
bar at the time of the incident. She was arrested for permitting those not twenty-one years of age to be
in the establishment.
