Police: Host, 19, Arrested After Teen Drinking Party on Althea Lane

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When an area resident complained about suspicious behavior in the area of Althea Lane and Hanson Road just past midnight on Saturday, police said they found a teenage drinking party had just taken place in a nearby home.

A 19-year-old resident of the home on Althea Lane was charged with providing alcohol to minors, and police called the parents of two teenagers found in the house, although all the other attendees at the party appeared to have left before police arrived at about 12:40 a.m., police said.

Darien police gave this account (including accusations not proven in court):

At about 12:40 a.m., a neighborhood resident told police that males were talking in the area and two suspicious males with flashlights were running from a house on Althea Lane where a burglary had taken place in the past. The resident told police that the two got in a car and left.

Police came and walked up to the house, seeing Natural Light beer cans on the lawn. Going around to the back of the house, they found a table set up with red Solo cups, apparently for beer pong, and numerous empty and partly full cans of beer on the table and on the ground nearby. The beer on the ground was still cold.

A fire pit in the back still had a fire burning in it — but up to this point, police hadn’t seen anyone.

Then they saw a white male inside the home and, when they knocked on the door, the man — a 19-year-old resident of the house — opened it up. Police determined he was someone too young to drink alcohol. He said there were three other youths in the house, including his younger brother, who was asleep.

Police told him they had to go inside the house to check the welfare of any youths who had been drinking.

Two of the guests were in a back room of the house (that led to the area where the apparent beer pong table was located). One was a 19-year-old woman; the other, a 20-year-old man. Their parents were called and picked them up.

The father of the family had been asleep. He was awoken and objected to police coming into the home without a warrant (something it’s legal for them to do — in order to check for the welfare of youths when they see evidence that a teenage drinking party has just taken place).

The father also asserted that no more than two guests were at the house. But police concluded, based on all the empty beer containers, that there had been considerably more people there earlier.

The 19-year-old refused to tell police who had provided the alcohol for the partygoers. He was arrested on a charge of providing it himself. He is scheduled to appear July 8 in state Superior Court in Stamford.

The father, who was not charged or accused of any crime, objected to his son being arrested and insisted police had no right to be on the property and doesn’t want them on his property ever again.

See also

Editor’s note: The report of the parent in this case objecting to what police did in this case inspired us to include this other information about the general subject of teenager drinking parties at their homes, some with involvement of parents, most not. Without commenting on this particular case, we think these articles might be useful for people to read:

Police say these other teenage drinking parties were found this year:

Also:

Related: The (varying) mix of teenagers, drinking and parents — going back generations:

  • 1964: New York Times article: Parents arrested after teenagers served drinks at party then die in notorious Darien car accident
  • July 5, 1963: Life Magazine (page 64) on teenagers crashing parties in lower Fairfield County and elsewhere