Authorities are nearing the end of their investigation into a youth party at an Oenoke Ridge Road home last month at which a juvenile male was seriously hurt, Police Chief Leon Krolikowski said Wednesday night.
Asked to speak generally about criteria that officials use in deciding whether or not to bring criminal charges in such cases, the chief said, “It’s probable cause.”
“If we believe a crime has been committed then we apply for an arrest warrant for the offenders and the state’s attorney signs off on it or not,” Krolikowski said during the Police Commission’s meeting, held in the training room at NCPD. “But in a case like this we like to review all the facts beforehand with the state’s attorney so that we are all on the same page.”
Asked whether police had applied yet for an arrest warrant, he said: “Not yet, no, but that’s in the very near future.”
Police put out a public call for information about the March 25 party and received a “strong” response, Krolikowski said, though as with any major incident, “there were lots of rumors.”
“Many were unfounded,” the chief said. “There was some legitimacy to parts of the information we received and we had to compile it all. That is coming to a conclusion very soon, with a discussion with the state’s attorney about criminal charges.”
It isn’t clear whether police broke up the party, where it was, whether alcohol or drugs were involved, what was the nature of the young man’s injury, how old he is or how he was injured. Police have withheld his name because of his age, because their investigation is ongoing and because he is a victim.
Police Commissioner Paul Foley, speaking for himself and not on behalf of the group, said the incident “should give pause to parents out there in the community that are hosting these kinds of parties to really think about it now when something like this happens at their house and the responsibility that they have and the consequences that happen after these kinds of incidents.”
“This could have turned really bad,” Foley said. “It was bad enough, but these parties are going on a lot that we don’t catch and we are not out to catch all of them, that’s not what our role is, but when parents are hosting parties for high school with alcohol, accidents can happen, as we saw here.”
He added that parents should think twice about hosting such parties as high school graduation nears.
Krolikowski added that police “will be aggressively investigating all youth parties from now on, and making it a priority, so people should take great pause before they decide to host a party whether they are a youth or a parent because we will be aggressively investigating and bringing criminal charges against people that are responsible.”