You know it’s a good party if the cops show up, but what does it when they go on to issue over one hundred citations for underage drinking? That’s what happened at an off-campus frat house party in Bethesda, Maryland and it will certainly go down in American University history as part legend, part cautionary tale.
On Jan. 15 at roughly 12:30 a.m., police were called to Walhonding Road by reports of a noise disturbance at the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity house there. When they pulled up, it was to a scene right out of a college movie: the yard was filled with about 20 party-goers, watching as two struggled to carry a very drunk 18-year-old girl into a waiting Uber. They were trying to get her the hospital to be treated for alcohol poisoning without drawing the attention of local authorities.
Oops.
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The police promptly called for backup. Inside, they discovered 200 partygoers just on the first floor with another 50 to 75 people in the garage.
According to WUSA 9 News, the house was completely trashed, “with beer seeping through the ceiling into the basement…The house was so packed, investigators estimated the air temperature to be 100 degrees. And the alcohol was so abundant, a preliminary breath test registered .09, just in the ambient air. That’s above the legal level of intoxication for a Maryland driver.”
The reaction to the cops making an entrance was exactly what you’d expect from a bunch of scared, inebriated college students: they panicked.
“Officers located a number of teenagers hiding in bedrooms and closets; some went so far as attempting to exit the home through a second story window,” reported ABC7 News. “Another contingent of partiers barricaded the front door in attempt to block police from entering the home.”
It ended up taking 30 police officers from five of Montgomery County’s six police districts to end the madness. At one opint, Jamieson Tymann, the president of Pi Kappa Alpha, punched an officer. That officer’s face required stitches while Tymann is facing charges of second degree assault and resisting arrest.
The house is leased to 22-year-old student Tyler Steinhardt. He charged with 110 counts of providing alcohol to minors. However, this is not a criminal offense in the state of Maryland, so Steinhardt is only being charged with civil offenses. Still, he’s being slapped with fines up to $2,500 per underage partygoer, though it’s unlikely that he’ll have to pay the full amount.
Cops Crash Massive Frat Party, Issuing Over 100 Citations for Underage Drinking
