BUTTE (AP) -- A former store clerk cited for selling alcohol to a minor during a police undercover operation was a victim of entrapment, a jury said in acquitting him.

Twenty-one-year-old Brian Smith's recent acquittal in City Court culminated a rare challenge of police sting operations used to enforce the law against selling alcohol to minors.

"I wouldn't want to submit on any future job application that I was found guilty of unlawful transactions with children," said Smith, a Butte High School graduate who is now a car salesman. He was cited early this year.

In the undercover operations, police send underage shoppers into stores and observe as they try to buy alcohol. If a sale occurs, the clerk is cited.

It is an enforcement method used widely. Since Butte's program started last year with a federal grant, police have cited more than 60 clerks.

Police said they do not expect to change the program substantially because of Smith's acquittal.

"If you get a good lawyer, you can win any case," said Sgt. Jimm Kilmer. "We are going to go ahead with the same inspections."

Lawyer Rick Anderson represented Smith free of charge after he talked to Smith's father during a workout at the YMCA and learned of the young man's plight.

"This is happening all across the state, and there are a lot of people ending up with criminal records," Anderson said.

Curbing underage drinking is important, he said. But besides constituting entrapment, the tactic police use in stores does not prove that a person sold to minors knowingly, he said.

Juror Susanna Tenney said the Smith case met three criteria for entrapment. Reasons for the acquittal also included Montana's absence of a law requiring that store clerks request proof of age, Tenney said. Furthermore, she said, the undercover buyer in the Smith case appeared older than 21.