Pearson's story began in December 1998 when he was home on leave during a four-year stint in the Marines. He was helping his mom prepare for his sister's 21st birthday party. "She told me to run to the store and go pick up some Jell-O shots for the party," Pearson recalls. He laughed and told his mom you don't buy Jell-O shots at the store. Then a light bulb went off in his brain.

He began making plans to prepackage the shots, find the perfect plastic containers, and develop a laminated aluminum foil lid that wouldn't be affected by the alcohol content.

"I had a niche product that everybody knew," says Pearson, 31. "I didn't have to explain what a Jell-O shot was. I just commercialized the Jell-O shot."

He contracted with a chicken noodle soup packager in Lodi, Ohio, and began supplying them to bars and liquor stores in Ohio. Eight-packs of the little fluid filled cups were dressed up in a rainbow-colored package. The business started to jell.

"We went from delivering cases, to delivering pallets, and then delivering by the truckload," he said. "We went from one state to 24 states in a matter of a year."

Then the chicken soup maker got cold feet. Producing 10,000 to 15,000 cases of the product each month was more business than he wanted.

At about the same time, community groups and drug-prevention agencies began to express concerns about Zippers, especially its eye-catching packaging and the prospect it might be smuggled into schools.

Then, in 2002, USA Today picked up on the controversy with Hope Taft, the wife of Ohio Gov. Bob Taft, joining a growing chorus of concern.

"Products like these and wine coolers ... cause us great concern because they are very appealing to young people," she told the newspaper. "They all have colorful, creative labeling and catchy names. The packaging is sort of disguised."

The governor's wife "portrayed me as some 99-year-old man who sat in his castle at the top of a hill and tried to lure little kids to the door and feed them Jell-O shots," Pearson said.

With the glare of the media surrounding the product, retailers began pulling Zippers off the shelves.

Pearson tried to find a new manufacturer to replace the Lodi firm. He also began looking to diversify and, after meeting with Hugh Hefner, had hopes of packaging and distributing Playboy-branded beer.

He was sitting in his Toledo office one day when about 30 ATF agents and sheriff's deputies -- some with weapons drawn -- burst into his business waving a search warrant based on allegations he was illegally manufacturing alcoholic products. They seized computers, monitors, printers, fax machines and even cubicle walls, but no manufacturing equipment was to be found. They also raided his Genoa, Ohio home. News outlets reported that he was being accused of manufacturing illegal products and that he could face felony charges.

"I lost almost all of my business in a matter of 45 to 60 days," he said. Playboy officials also told him they couldn't strike a deal with someone facing criminal charges.

Pearson, who served with the Presidential Guard while with the Marines, went on the offensive, telling reporters that he was being railroaded. Within two days of going public, he says, prosecutors told him he'd only have to face a minor misdemeanor charge if he pleaded guilty. He refused.

The case went to a grand jury but it refused to indict. BPNC subsequently sued Taft and Ohio liquor control officials, arguing that constitutional rights were violated. But the courts dismissed the lawsuit.

Pearson decided to leave Ohio. He relocated to a 40,000-square-foot plant in the Bedford Industrial Park. He said Michigan officials were very accommodating.

At the Temperance location since January, the business' product now is being distributed in 15 states. Its most recent offerings include EDEN, a ready-to-drink rum runner in a plastic flask that Meijer Inc. already has it on its shelves, and Tiki Rita Margarita, which comes in six different flavors.

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