Local officials have passed a law they hope will encourage more prosecutions of underage drinking, two months after dozens of residents were charged with that offense at a house party.
But some parents fear the changes will lead to selective arrests.
Under an ordinance passed Tuesday by the Town Council, underage drinking is now a local violation that can be handled at the municipal level.
Those charged with the offense will be prosecuted in the Secaucus Municipal Court before Judge Kathleen Walrod, who now has the authority to impose a $250 fine for a first offense and a $350 fine for each subsequent offense. Community service could also be imposed and driving privileges could be suspended or postponed for six months.
Thirty-four people were arrested for drinking violations during a house party in March.
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Gonnelli: It’s better than county program
“These kids would get sent to a treatment program that’s got everybody in it. Some of the people in the [county] program are adults or people who have other issues,” said Mayor Michael Gonnelli on Tuesday night after the council had passed the new law. “We think this [ordinance] will be better for first-time offenders and kids that can be helped in other ways.”
On Tuesday, town officials argued that Secaucus police officers were sometimes reluctant to charge kids with underage drinking because they didn’t want them to face county criminal charges and punishment. But this often meant that kids caught with alcohol weren’t prosecuted at all.
“If I’m a police officer, and I think a kid is not that bad, the way [it was before], I might not do anything,” explained Town Attorney Anthony D’Elia Tuesday. “But if we have a municipal ordinance, where I know I’m not going to be sending the kid to the county level, I might write ticket to that kid, rather than let him walk.”
Arrests led to changes
Town officials decided to strengthen the local underage drinking law after 34 young people were arrested for drinking violations during a house party two months ago.
On Friday, March 19, 11 juveniles and 23 adults under the age of 21 were arrested and charged with underage drinking and open container violations at a house on Grace Avenue, according to Det. Mike Torres of the Secaucus Police Department.
Secaucus Police went to the residence at around 11:24 p.m. after someone in the area called to complain about noise at the home.
Residents have also complained about small groups of teens drinking inside Buchmuller Park in recent months, although Torres said those alleged incidents have not been reported to police. But the Grace Avenue party led both parents and officials to ask whether Secaucus has an underage drinking problem.
“That was really the incident that led to the ordinance that was just passed,” said Torres.
Who do you know?
But at least two residents said that allowing the county to handle underage drinking offenses was better because the prosecutions would not be influenced as much on family status or family connections. These residents, Pat Belenski and Andrew Conti, believe that leaving such arrests and prosecutions in the hands of local authorities will be fraught with problems.
“There is concern about the discretion of the Police Department,” Belenski, the mother of a Secaucus High School student, said Tuesday at the council meeting. “Whether or not someone gets arrested is going to come down to whose kid it is. We had [34] people arrested. But two weeks prior, there were kids drinking on Acorn, and the [investigating officer let them go]. Before that, members of the football team were drinking. But that was okay because it was a good year and we can’t have them [getting suspended and] missing two weeks of school. That’s the question parents have. If you don’t know anybody, is your kid going to get arrested?”
Conti, a former officer himself, added that the new ordinance gave police “too much discretion.”
But D’Elia noted that officers already had the discretion to make an arrest or not. He also added that the new ordinance gives local law enforcement a “middle option” between sending kids to the county and not making the arrest at all.
E-mail E. Assata Wright at awright@hudsonreporter.com.