(no subject)
Police stop teen's kegger; family arrested
Daughter, 18, had party OK'd by parents
Posted by the Asbury Park Press on 07/22/06
BY ERIK LARSEN
COASTAL MONMOUTH BUREAU
OCEAN TOWNSHIP - It's happened again.
For the second time in a week - and the seventh time this year - police broke up an underage drinking party in town, this one on Westfield Street late Thursday.
However, this time, the kids are only partially to blame, police said.
Parents Raymond and Marianne Tiley, ages 51 and 48 respectively, allowed a beer keg at their home for a mock wedding reception their 18-year-old daughter, Megan, was hosting in the backyard of the house for her friends and acquaintances, Marianne Tiley said.
"My daughter had some friends in the backyard, we the parents were aware of it and everything was going fine until about 12:30 (a.m.) when people who were uninvited started showing up," said Marianne Tiley, who said she and her husband had gone to bed before the party got out of control. "That's when all of our finest (police) showed up . . . It was clearly wrong of us as parents. My kids are very responsible."
It's not clear who bought or obtained the keg, Detective Sgt. Earl Gifford said.
Police said they went to the house about 11:12 p.m. in response to a noise complaint. When the officer arrived, he found several young people milling around in the street and numerous cars parked along the block.
Extra officers were dispatched to the scene and the officer found the front door of the house open, Gifford said.
Two 17-year-olds and three 18-year-olds were issued municipal summonses for underage possession of alcohol on private property, Gifford said.
Several other partygoers made their escape from the residence before additional officers arrived, Gifford said.
Meanwhile, mother, father and daughter all were arrested and issued summonses charging them with providing alcohol to people under the legal drinking age of 21, police said.
"They knew that alcohol was being served," Gifford said. "It is a rare instance."
The Tiley family now have a date pending in Ocean Township Municipal Court.
Gifford said there is not a widespread problem with underage drinking in the township. The Ocean Township Police Department just makes a greater effort at publicizing these instances than other municipal departments, he said.
"In speaking with other departments, it's a statewide, countywide, problem. It gets talked about all the time in juvenile officer association (conferences)," Gifford said.
But it's also true that Ocean Township is a college town, located near Monmouth University in neighboring West Long Branch, Gifford said.
Earlier this week, in a separate incident, two 18-year-old men and two 17-year-old girls were issued municipal summonses and released to their parents after police put a stop to another underage drinking party on Dune Road.
In that case, alcohol had been smuggled into what was supposed to be a booze-free event, police said.
The issue of underage drinking gathered increased public attention in February, when a 16-year-old township girl was treated for hypothermia after she wiggled out of a pair of handcuffs while in police custody and hid from officers for more than six hours on a freezing cold night.
That girl had attended one of two parties police interrupted over the same weekend, in which a total of 35 teens from all over Monmouth County were charged with underage drinking.
A few weeks later, police again broke up two parties in one weekend, taking 42 people into custody.
In May, police went to a house on Deal Road after a motorist reported his vehicle was struck with a beer bottle as he passed the home. Police issued municipal summonses to seven people.
On April 19, officials in town, including police, held a "town meeting" on underage drinking which drew about 150 people to the auditorium of Ocean Township High School.
While much of the meeting focused on prevention and education, a heated discussion erupted later among parents over whether police had overreacted in their enforcement efforts.
Police Chief Antonio V. Amodio Jr. made it clear then that to do anything less than what his officers have done and are doing would be to ignore the law.