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The man with gold chains around his neck raised his beer in the air.

He "staggered and stumbled about," yelling in Spanish and knocking over chairs in the bar, a state agent wrote. The man groped at least two female patrons.

After watching the man drink several Heinekens and make such a spectacle of himself, the agent cited Sauce-Liquid Lounge-Raw. The Central Avenue bar was charged with overserving him.

The agent's write-up makes the case sound like a slam dunk. But the man in charge of prosecuting the state's growing pile of liquor citations summed up the case another way.

"Mi palabra v. su palabra," Bob Schwartz wrote on a sticky note attached to the case file. His word against theirs.

The same could be said for the majority of the overserving citations issued by the Special Investigations Division of the state Department of Public Safety as part of a recent crackdown.

While some citations are backed by evidence gleaned from DWI arrests or accident-scene investigations, most rely on the observations of SID agents and little or nothing else, according to a Tribune review of case files.

As the state puts increasing pressure on liquor sellers as part of a larger DWI crackdown, critics say that leaves the system open for abuse and places an impossible burden on bartenders.

"The concern that we have is that this is all very arbitrary," said Carol Wight, president of the New Mexico Restaurant Association. "We have concerns about the standards of evidence. We have concerns that certain establishments are being targeted. We have a lot of concerns."

Schwartz, a former Bernalillo County district attorney, said he's comfortable prosecuting the cases filed by SID, including the Sauce-Liquid Lounge-Raw case. He points out that many criminal cases are based solely on the word of police officers or victims.

But since taking his current job a year ago, Schwartz has declined to prosecute a handful of pending cases, citing problems with the fieldwork.

"SID agents did not witness sale despite claiming to do so," he wrote on the file of a citation against a bar in Cubero.

"No evidence he displayed signs (of intoxication) to the clerk," he wrote in a case against the Beverage Corner in Deming.

After Albuquerque's Graham Central Station was cited in November, the bar's lawyer requested a copy of a video made by SID during its investigation. The state wrote back, saying it had decided not to prosecute the case. A note from Schwartz attached to file made clear why: "Video does not show signs of intoxication."

Moreover, when patrons submit to voluntary breathalyzer tests during investigations, SID agents sometimes fail to observe the 20-minute deprivation period required to submit the results of such tests as evidence in criminal proceedings, according to video evidence reviewed by The Tribune.

The deprivation period, during which people aren't allowed to eat, smoke or drink anything, is meant to keep alcohol residue present in a person's mouth from affecting breathalyzer results.

While Schwartz said no prosecutor moves forward with every case filed by police, Wight sees SID's work another way.

"It's like they're filing cases they know are going to be dropped," she said. "It's like it's a scare tactic."

The number of such cases is increasing dramatically. In 2001, the state issued just 11 citations for serving to an intoxicated person. By last year, that number rose to 126, and citations for 2007 are on pace to surpass that total.

Schwartz said the increase reflects a changed attitude within the state's regulatory apparatus, which is under orders from Gov. Bill Richardson to hold bars accountable.

"In the past, I wouldn't quite say there was a cozy relationship, but there was a much easier, back-porch feel to the process," Schwartz said. "That's not what we have in mind."

Servers can be charged with a misdemeanor crime - which is both the least-used approach and the only one that gives the defendant a day in court. It is a fourth-degree felony to serve or sell alcohol to underage customers.

More commonly, servers and their employers are given an administrative citations, which can lead to a hearing.

In the midst of the crackdown on liquor sellers, the state pushed through tough new rules governing liquor-license holders. Those laws, which went into effect in October:

Increased the time period during which bars are liable for intoxicated patrons from one hour after they leave the bar to 90 minutes.

Banned bar owners and employees from drinking on duty and from being intoxicated on the premises at any time.

Allowed the state to levy a $10,000 fine or permanently revoke a liquor license after an establishment's third citation within a 12-month period.

Officials on both sides of the issue say that last provision is both the most significant and the least clear.

"Does that mean three citations or three violations or three convictions?" Schwartz said. "We don't know. I think an appeals court will have to tell us."

In any case, the new law has already provoked a strong reaction from liquor-license holders.

In recent years, nearly all citations issued by the state resulted in settlements, Schwartz said. In these "stipulated agreements," licensees typically agreed to a $1,000 fine and one-day suspension rather than hire a lawyer and go through an administrative hearing.

As a result, no such hearings have been held for about two years, officials say.

Hearings scheduled to begin this summer also have been delayed.

On the recommendation of Schwartz, the state this month recused all the hearing officers assigned to the cases, who were employees of the state Regulation and Licensing Department.

The department will now recruit hearing officers from other state agencies, spokesman Bob Hagen said.

Facing the new rules, many licensees are now choosing to fight their citations.

"We're telling people to fight them," Wight said.