Party Crashers bust Cape grads in Dewey

Lt. Kevin Jones said he expected the Party Crashers initiative in Dewey Beach to find underage drinkers. What he didn’t expect is a group of Cape Henlopen High School graduates would be the first week’s biggest bust.

Jones is the Delaware Alcohol and Tobacco Enforcement officer in charge of the two-week long program aimed at cracking down on underage drinking in Dewey Beach. The program kicked off June 1 and runs through the end of this week.

Twenty-four hours after Cape Henlopen High School’s 2015 graduation June 2, and just two days after the program was initiated, officers cited 28 teens June 3 for underage drinking in a house at 17 Collins St. One adult, Mark Woodruff, 50, was charged with providing alcohol to minors.

“I would have figured the locals would have known better, but that’s what happens,” he said.

Jones said this is the first time the Party Crashers worked the southern part of the state. He said DATE has worked with the University of Delaware and New Castle County Police departments in the past.

Jones said police received no complaint about the party, but an officer noticed a bunch of young kids walking to a particular house.

An age-appropriate officer was sent to the house and followed a group right in, said Jones. He was there for about 15 minutes before he left, the officer said.

After obtaining a search warrant on information provided by the undercover agent, Jones said, the police surrounded the house and ended the party.

Tom Colucci, of Rehoboth Beach, said his son was at the party. He said he was taken aback by the heavy-handedness of the action taken by the police force. He said 18 officers surrounded the house to break up the party, some on horseback.

“Police officers on horses are about riot control,” he said. “And these kids weren’t bothering anyone.”

Jones said there is plan for executing a search warrant of this matter. He said the mounted division of the Delaware State Police may have been on the street, but did not participate in the arrests. He said surrounding a property prevents individuals from trying to run from the scene.

“What commonly happens is that kids will jump from a window or try to hop a fence, which could lead to them getting hurt, and nobody wants that,” he said. “Once the situation is under control the officers disperse.”

Colucci said that the undercover officers weren’t invited in, and he believes that all 28 kids at the party would attest to that.

Colucci said there was nothing going on in the streets of Dewey that night, and the police actively, and in his opinion, unnecessarily, searched out the party.

“This was not a bunch of kids wrecking a house,” he said. “These were all local kids; citizens of the area. This is a bad scene.”

Colucci said the Party Crashers initiative is a political reaction to a problem that doesn’t really exist.

Jones said by all accounts the kids cooperated fully with the police, and that it’s unfortunate that the incident happened. He said the problem with kids drinking at that age is they don’t have the experience and often drink to excess.

“Lord knows what that might lead to,” he said.

Jones said there’s a mandatory license suspension of 30 days for Delaware residents who are found guilty of underage drinking. He said when the individual turns 21 they may petition to have the incident expunged from their record.

“Many of the kids do this,” he said. “That’s a good thing. We’re all young once. They’ll have to pay for this mistake now, but not for the rest of their lives.”

Other than the bust of Cape Henlopen students, Jones said Dewey Beach officers said the first week of the initiative was unusually quiet for this time of year. A total of 26 other citations were issued by Friday afternoon, including selling of alcohol to a minor to driving under the influence.

Jones said the poor weather played a role in the relative calm, but he credited the initiative as the main reason.