Sheriff’s office cracks down on underage drinking parties

KATE LIEBERS

Staff Writer

A total of 22 juve­niles and two adults were cited for a vari­ety of offenses this week­end after Delaware County Sher­iff deputies broke up two under­age drink­ing parties.

The two adults charged in con­nec­tion to the par­ties, Michael Cur­rie, 55, and Matthew Mehrer, 18, were cited around 10 p.m. Sat­ur­day at Whirl­away Cir­cle in Con­cord Township.

Cur­rie, who iden­ti­fied him­self as the homeowner’s attor­ney, was charged with dis­or­derly con­duct and obstruct­ing offi­cial busi­ness, the Delaware County Sheriff’s Office reported. Mehrer was charged with offenses involv­ing under­age con­sump­tion of alcohol.

Deputies also cited 17 juve­niles between 15 and 17 years of age. The minors included 11 boys: a 15-year-old from Lewis Cen­ter, six 16-year-olds from Dublin, a 16-year-old from Pow­ell, and three 17-year-olds from Dublin. The oth­ers were 16-year-old girls — one from Pow­ell and five from Dublin.

About two hours later, around 12:15 a.m. Sun­day, deputies cited six juve­niles at an under­age drink­ing party on Klondike Road in Delaware.

Five of the minors at the sec­ond party were boys, includ­ing a 14-year-old from Ash­ley, a 15– and a 16-year-old from Sun­bury, and two 17-year-olds from Delaware and Ash­ley. The sixth minor was a 16-year-old girl from Delaware.

The minors were charged with offenses involv­ing under­age per­sons and unruli­ness. In both cases, deputies noti­fied the minors’ par­ents and the indi­vid­u­als were issued a sum­mons to appear in juve­nile court, the DCSO reported.

“Our office is con­sis­tent in its mes­sage: under­age drink­ing will not be tol­er­ated,” DCSO Capt. Kevin Sav­age said.

“Not only is it ille­gal, but it is dan­ger­ous and can have seri­ous con­se­quences. We are com­mit­ted to part­ner­ing with par­ents and edu­ca­tors to inform our youth of the dan­gers of under­age drinking.”

State law for­bids any­one under 21 years of age to pos­sess or con­sume alco­hol unless a con­sent­ing par­ent or guardian is present.

Posted by Gary Henery on Aug 8 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.