A 50-year-old Ponus Ridge man faces felony charges after a teenager who had been drinking at an Independence Day house party at his home later turned up intoxicated and vomiting in the bushes of a Millport Avenue residence.
Around 6:35 p.m. on July 4, police were dispatched to Millport Avenue on a report that a drunk 17-year-old boy was vomiting and having extreme stomach pain, laying “in the recovery position” on his side, partly in a driveway and partly in bushes, according to a police report.
The teen’s mother phoned 9-1-1, the report said. Arriving, emergency responders found the boy’s mother as well as two other teens and learned that he’d drunk about eight or nine beers, as well as whiskey, the report said. He was taken to Norwalk Hospital, according to the report. The teens told police that their friend had become drunk at a Ponus Ridge party and that he’d drunk Fireball-brand whiskey there, the report said.
Police then traveled to the Ponus Ridge address. There, they found a garage door to the house open and nobody responded to a knock on the door, the report said. Police walked around to the side of the house and smelled the odor of alcohol, the report said. In the yard, they spotted three large garbage bags of beer cans, empty beer cans in the yard, two or three coolers in the yard and an empty bottle of the Fireball-brand whiskey (as well as a badminton net set up in the yard).
Soon, the owners of the home arrived, the 50-year-old man and his wife, the report said. The man was intoxicated, police said. Confronted by police, the man told the officers to leave, the report said. The man told police was returning form the Waveny fireworks, after dropping off one of his children and some of that child’s friends, the report said.
Police told the man that they were in his house because they learned of an extremely intoxicated youth who reportedly had got into that condition at a house party at the man’s home, the report said.
The man admitted to police that he had been at his house and that teenagers were there, the report said. He told police that he didn’t provide alcohol but was aware that the teens had brought their own alcohol and they were drinking on his property, the report said. Of the teen who had been taken to the hospital, the man told police the youth had arrived at his house in that condition and already had been vomiting in the man’s own back yard, so he asked the teen to leave and saw to it that the boy’s two friends took him away, the report said.
He was charged with risk of injury to a minor, a felony offense, as well as second-degree reckless endangerment and failure to halt possession of alcohol by a minor.
He was released on $5,000 bond and scheduled to appear July 16 in state Superior Court in Norwalk.
I’m surprised that we don’t hear more stories of this type. My son graduated from NCHS last month and attended several parent-hosted parties where alcohol was served by the hosts to the 17 and 18 year olds. I’m relieved that none made to the police blotter.
I drink alcohol at home in moderation, and acknowledge that my 20 and 17 year olds are drinking (they swear that they never get behind the wheel) unlawfully. That said, I don’t know how otherwise responsible parents can put themselves at such risk when the laws of our state carry such a potential penalty.