Trump’s Colts Neck Golf Club Fined $400K For Patron’s DWI Crash

COLTS NECK, NJ - Former President Donald Trump’s Colts Neck golf club has agreed to pay the state of New Jersey a $400,000 fine for overserving a customer who was involved in a fatal drunken driving incident after leaving the club in 2015.

The Monmouth County location, dubbed Trump National Golf Club Colts Neck, will also restrict alcohol sales to designated parts of the club and prohibit through cart service until Dec. 31 (although as recently as 2019, the state moved to remove the golf club’s liquor licenses entirely, including at other Trump golf clubs in Pine Hill and Bedminster).

Trump National Golf Club Colts Neck did not contest the charges and entered a plea of “non vult” charges, which waives the institution’s right to appeals, per POLITICO. The golf club will pay the New Jersey Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control four installments of $100,000 annually until 2024.

NJ.com also reports that the club agreed to service training for employees by a “nationally recognized organization.”

The charges stem from an Aug. 30, 2015 incident in which a Bergen County man, Andrew Halder, crashed his car - killing his father, a passenger - while driving intoxicated after the two played a round of golf at the club. State officials claim the club was serving liquor other than beer from carts — which stands in violation of the golf club’s license — and served liquor to the driver despite him being “apparently” intoxicated.

As the younger Halder tried to enter Route 18 north from Route 537 West, his 2007 Mini Cooper flipped on a highway on-ramp around four miles from the golf course. The father was ejected from the vehicle. He was taken to Jersey Shore University Medical Center in Neptune, where died from his injuries, according to the Monmouth County Prosecutor's Office.

A joint investigation by the Monmouth County Prosecutor's Office and the Colts Neck Police Department found that Andrew Halder was operating the motor vehicle with a blood alcohol concentration of more than the legal limit of .08 percent. Halder has since pleaded guilty to vehicular manslaughter and was sentenced to three years of probation.

The Washington Post reports that the $400,000 penalty is equivalent to 6.5 percent of its total 2020 revenue. A spokeswoman for New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal told the publication that, “to the best of [the state’s] knowledge,” this served as the first case in the history of New Jersey’s alcoholic beverage division “involving a golf club charged with serving alcohol to a visibly intoxicated patron who later caused a fatal motor vehicle crash.”