From Dan Tepfer, CT Post
An error by city police officers, compounded by a state judicial clerk, means more than 80 Sacred Heart University students ticketed for allegedly using fake IDs are facing misdemeanor charges that could leave them with criminal records.
“This is a big mess,” said Fairfield lawyer Daniel Ford. “I have never heard of this happening before.”On April 5, a crowd of Sacred Heart students were in the Golden Star Café on Main Street for “Student Night,” when it was raided by police.
Police said most of the students were underage and drinking alcoholic beverages. More than 80 of them had gotten into the bar using fake or altered driver’s licenses from other states, Police Chief Armando said, showing a stack of the phony licenses police had seized.
Full story here.
Too bad so sad these college students got caught breaking the law. I wonder if there would have been any concern if this was a bunch of students from Harding rather than SHU. I am sure there are many many more students who have encounters with the PD’s. Too bad.
I don’t know, Andy. I think our cash-strapped state needs to spend its judicial money on violent crime.
Eighty arrests/tickets at one time in one place is a very efficient use of police resources and should yield a nice dollar return in fines.
They broke multiple laws by using fake IDs and drinking underage, they should have criminal records. Let them pay stiff fines, apply for accelerated rehabilitation and if they keep their noses clean their records will also be clean at some future date.
With all due respect Mr. Marcus, I had a fake ID when I was under age, and have not ever been arrested. Accelerated rehabilitation? For what? Having a fake ID does not an alcohol and drug problem make.
My opinion is in the immediate, human life is a much more precious resource than revenues from fines. There is no comparison in my mind. We have no money, the money we do have should be used to protect the sources we have for future revenues. Humans. My opinion. I do respect yours however.
Zena Lu–you admit to having a fake ID and not having been arrested. Apparently you were not caught using it to violate the law.
Human life is a precious resource and underage drinkers have been know to take lives while driving under the influence, or make stupid decisions that risk life and limb.
I’m old enough, in my day 18-20 year olds went over the state line to Portchester to drink (the age in NY was 18). We didn’t chance getting caught with a fake ID in CT.
Having a fake ID can an alcoholic make. I have a daughter who completed her freshman year of college this month. The first semester the girls in her suite were busy buying fake IDs from assorted states. She doesn’t drink outside our home, because her genetic makeup causes her to turn red in the face from one drink. It’s too easy to get caught. One of her suite mates starting partying in NY clubs close to campus a few nights a week, the fake IDs were accepted. After the third time her parents were called because she was found sprawled retching in the gutter or public bathroom, she was expelled from the college and ended up in an inpatient facility for detox.
She may never get back to a college education, the parents lost $25,000 they paid for the first semester of school. She also tried a number of drugs while drunk, things she had refused when sober.
I was legal at 18 years old as well, Mr. Marcus. I know the drill. In fact, I am probably more familiar with Portchester and Vista than you are.
Look, I don’t need to be right here, but apparently you do. So okay, you are right.
So let me see if I’ve got this right. A bunch of underage SHU students were using fake IDs to procure alcohol. That’s what they were charged with. Ill-informed or ignorant BRIDGEPORT police officers charged them with this crime (the chief wanted to go easy on them) and now they may have to deal with reality.
Too bad. They were not overcharged, they were properly charged. Wonder if part of this has to do with their status at SHU. Might they be suspended if charged with a misdemeanor but not as an infraction? Is the city helping SHU out with their rowdy student population?
If I remember the first story, wasn’t it reported fake IDs were not involved? And don’t two BRIDGEPORT police officers face disciplinary action while the city is trying to help the real culprits skate?
Where is Council President McCARTHY’s outrage over all this?
I wonder if AJ or Joey G got a call from SHU asking for this favor.
Or maybe even Dan Ford. How is it one lawyer apparently lined up all 80 students?
Something does not pass the smell test here.
Maybe SHU is threatening to take the land deal off the table or at least restructure it.
And where are AmyMarie and Michele Lyons? Awfully quiet about this.
Stay tuned, kids. More to come.
Bingo!
These brats broke the law. SHU is trying to wipe a massive amount of egg off its face and wants to change the subject of their illegal behavior into a Bridgeport problem. SHU wants everyone to think Bridgeport cops protecting Bridgeport neighborhoods against out-of-control, spoiled-little-bastard SHU brats is a Bridgeport problem. No. This is a SHU problem, and there should be a way to make SHU liable for this type of illegal behavior and all consequences. These brats wouldn’t be in Bridgeport if it weren’t for SHU. This is another example of how well SHU Dean of Students Larry Wielk does his job. (And he’s been there for 20 years! What’s up with that? I guess SHU really cares about how it impacts Bridgeport. NOT!!! We should help them expand. No?)
Let Mommy and Daddy and SHU pay out some big bucks to get the charges plea-bargained so the records of their brats are expunged just prior to graduation so their arrogant, spoiled-brat behavior doesn’t follow them into adult life. We wouldn’t want that, even though they would probably deserve it. (SHU doesn’t want these crime stats getting into its National College rating stats.)
GREAT JOB, BPD! The people of BRIDGEPORT love you for doing a good job here, that’s all that counts. EPH SHU.
Zena Lu: Drinking and driving is a crime for those under 21. It is a violent crime if the car of one of these underage drunk drivers is driven into you and kills you or injures you.
Let us keep to the charge at hand, shall we?
Who said there was drinking and driving? We are speaking of fake IDs, correct?
The article says 30-88 had been repealed in 2012. So what does this mean? The BPD had not written out a citation for this offense in 3-1/2 years? So what have they been doing all this time? Not issuing any citations or charging them under 30-88a?
A major embarrassment is in the makings here, that’s for sure.
Seemingly 30-88a added teeth, so to speak of, to 30-88. Let’s look at the facts at hand. The police confiscated phony IDs from the students. The underage students purchased them illegally for the sole purpose of procuring alcoholic beverages, which is exactly what they were doing that night at Golden Star. I doubt this was the first time or the only location where they used a fake ID to get served, but this time they got caught. However, it is a misdemeanor with a fine of $200 to $500 and/or 30 days, which is doubtful especially for first-time offenders. This misdemeanor won’t exactly “ruin their lives” as their record can be expunged in due time. Maybe it will serve as a wake-up call, and hopefully they won’t try to pull the same stunt again.
Zena Lu: There is, or was, before the state shut them down, plenty of drinking and driving by SHU students who drove to and from the Golden Star. It doesn’t take Sherlock Holmes to deduce when there are hoards of college students drinking at an off-campus bar located over a mile from campus, there is going to be plenty of drinking and driving involving those students. Thank God you or yours haven’t been unfortunate enough to encounter one of them while they were operating a motor vehicle unsafely/DWI.
And really, for you to say “Let us keep to the charge at hand, shall we? Who said there was drinking and driving? We are speaking of fake IDs, correct?” is really asinine. The concern about the underage drinking of these young adults is about the potentiation of unsafe/reckless behavior by the alcohol, not about moralization, as you are trying, albeit lamely, to imply.
Speaking of the SHU problem, I just found out from someone from the 134th that the P&Z Commission decided to try to sneak the meeting for the SHU land grab vote past the public.
The P and Z meeting that was scheduled for June 6 was stealthily moved to this Tuesday night, May 31 at 6 PM. Maybe Lennie can confirm this and give us some details? Maybe as a little OIB follow-up edition on the issue?
It seems like the cover of the holiday weekend was used to try to slide a few things past the public.
Just got an update from my 134th contact: The meeting mentioned above is a City Council meeting and will occur Wednesday at 6PM, when, apparently, the full Council will vote on the SHU weasel deal.
Lennie: Can you flesh this out for us? The sudden, holiday weekend change of date of the SHU vote by the Council, etc.? This seems worthy of an OIB edition in time to let the readership know about all these SHU/Council machinations on the heels of the SHU-BPD incident/controversy. (Looks like the Troll might have actually heard the SHU administrators correctly as they were passing over his bridge discussing the embarrassing situation of the mass arrest of their students for underage drinking at the Golden Star. They’re telling the City “No” on the land-grab unless their little terrorists are given a pass on the underage drinking/false ID charges?)
And then people are surprised when blacks and Latinos say the system is rigged. If these were black kids with fake id’s on the East Side they would throw the book at them.
*** A SIMPLE FINE AND COMMUNITY SERVICE SHOULD PLEASE THE COURT, NO? ***