Teen Summonsed for Hosting Party with Alcohol

* This story was updated at 10:07 p.m. on Sept. 30, 2013. 

The Long Beach Police Department issued its second summons for violation of the city’s Social Host Law in September and the third such summons this year. 

Follow Long Beach Patch on Facebook.

According to police, officers responded to a call for a party involving under age drinking at a home on West Penn Street, and at the scene they observed as many as 35 teenagers in the area and as many as 35 more teens running out of the house onto the street and into neighboring yards at about 11 p.m. Sept. 28.

The officers located a 16-year-old resident of the home and issued the child a summons for violating the Social Host Law for hosting a party in which alcoholic beverages, including Budweiser and Bud Light beer and Bacardi rum, were served to people under the age of 21.

Police contacted the child’s father, and on his return to his Long Beach home officers informed him of the violation, the LBPD said. While police waited for the father to arrive, officers conducted a controlled dispersal and their parents picked up all the minors.

The 16-year-old who was summonsed is scheduled to appear in City Court on Oct. 13. While a search of the city’s online Code of Ordinance doesn’t yield a listing of the Social Host Law, a webpage on the city’s main site states that the social host ordinance refers to any “legal” adult who is “in charge” of the premises, and that an adult in the State of New York refers to anyone older than 16; others fall under the juvenile system. The penalty for violating the law is a fine up to $250 and/or 15 days in jail.

Earlier this month police issued a woman a summons for violating the social host ordinance after responding to a call about noise from a party at a home in the Canals, and in June police issued a woman a summons for violating the law after police responded to a call about a loud party at an East Market Street home.

The LBPD has issued more than 40 Social Host Law violation summonses since 2006, when Long Beach became the first municipality in the state to enact the law.

“The Long Beach Police Department will not tolerate underage drinking in our community,” Lt. Eric Cregeen, an LBPD spokesman, said in a statement.