Police apologize for disrupting party
by Charlotte Tucker
Staff Writer
June 8, 2005
Montgomery County Police have apologized to a Bethesda woman for interrupting her daughter's graduation party while investigating possible underage drinking.
Margaret Engel Adams said Deputy Chief John King called her Monday and apologized "over and over" and said he is "looking into" the incident.
Engel Adams and Kathy Phelan held a graduation party Thursday night for their daughters, Emily and Anna, at Phelan's home on Rosedale Avenue in the West Chevy Chase Heights neighborhood of Bethesda. The girls, who had known each other since elementary school, graduated from Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School the day before.
"It was an intergenerational party," with a moon bounce for the younger children and a blues band for the adults, said Engel Adams. Her husband, Bruce Adams, is the founder and president of Bethesda Big Train Base Ball and a former Montgomery County Council member.
"I was circulating among the guests," Engel Adams said. "There was cranberry juice, iced tea. There was no alcohol being served to the kids."
Phelan said police first knocked on her door about 9:30 p.m., in response to a noise complaint. She said they wanted to administer Breathalyzer tests to underage people at the party. She said that although police said they had received complaints about noise, they never asked her to turn down the music and instead focused on whether teens were drinking.
"Honestly, the party would have been [ruined] if the police had come in and started testing people," Phelan said.
So she said no.
Lt. Eric Burnett, director of the Media Services Division, said police receive many calls about suspected underage drinking, and they are rarely denied entry to a home when they request it. The officers who responded to the party were members of an alcohol enforcement team that deploys through the county to combat teen drinking.
When they are denied entry to a home, it is common practice to set up roadblocks near the house to ensure that those leaving the party are not intoxicated, which is what they did Thursday night.
"What we do is not to pick on people," he said. "Our job is to keep these kids alive."
Phelan said the roadblocks did not bother her.
"I have no problem with the fact that they checked the party out, that's their job," she said.
But she was upset that, after everyone passed the Breathalyzer tests, the police returned to her home. They asked to see her driver's license, Phelan said, and when she refused, they ticketed nearly a dozen cars parked near her home.
The tickets, Engel Adams and Phelan said, were for minor parking violations. The women contend the police were frustrated by their inability to find any wrongdoing at the party.
The band's van was ticketed because it was parked partially in front of Phelan's driveway, she said. Emily Adams' car was ticketed for parking opposite the flow of traffic.
"These were neatly parked cars," Engel Adams said. "The only violation I saw was the band's minivan ... which extended six inches into the hostess' own driveway. ...Certainly they had permission to do that."
Burnett said the tickets issued were for legitimate parking violations.
"All citations are legal citations," he said. "[The officers] did not make any of them up."
Police officials are investigating whether officers did anything inappropriate by issuing the tickets, according to Burnett. But, he also said, that police had no plans to change their policy toward investigating reports or suspicions of underage drinking.
Burnett also applauded the girls' families for holding an alcohol-free party, but said police responded the way they did because often such parties do involve alcohol and underage drinking.
He cited a case from the weekend in which Chevy Chase homeowners are charged with hosting a party at which they provided alcohol to teens, and another in which a girl was brought to Suburban Hospital with a blood-alcohol level of .50, more than five times the legal limit.
But Phelan and Engel Adams said the police needlessly ruined what should have been a happy occasion.
"I know they have a job to do, and I know it's a tough job," Phelan said. "But I don't know how they expect to engage the help of a community by treating people like that."
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