Minnesota’s Sixth District Court in Cook County is wrapping up charges against 27 young people caught partying at a gravel pit three months ago.
According to the complaint filed by the Cook County Sheriff ’s Office, deputies arrived at a large party being held at a gravel pit up the Gunflint Trail referred to as Pickeral Pit at approximately 2 a.m. on August 4, 2013. The complaint said deputies discovered “many vehicles, a large bonfire, a lot of alcohol, and approximately 50 or more people standing around.”
The report states that upon arrival of the squad vehicles, many people ran into the woods surrounding the gravel pit. Deputies discovered that many of the people at the party were under the age of 21 and had been consuming alcohol. Preliminary breath tests (PBT) were conducted and a number of people were found to have breath alcohol content ranging from .012 to .125.
Sixteen individuals from Cook County were charged with underage consumption. Three were under 16 years old and were charged with minor consumption. Seven of those youths were also charged with fleeing on foot.
An additional nine individuals were not charged with underage consumption, but were charged with fleeing on foot. One juvenile was charged with possession of drug paraphernalia. An 18-year-old male at the party was charged with carrying a weapon without a permit.
Another young person ran when deputies approached and when caught appeared to be having a seizure. An ambulance was paged and the 18-year-old male was transported to North Shore Hospital. When a deputy arrived at the hospital to check on him, the man admitted that he had faked the seizure to try to get out of trouble.
Several people over the age of 21 were initially charged with violation of Cook County’s social host ordinance, a misdemeanor. Violation of the ordinance means that the defendants “hosted or allowed an event or gathering at a residence, premises or any other private or public property where alcohol or alcoholic beverages were present when he or she knew or reasonably should have known that an underage person would or did consume or possess alcohol or alcoholic beverage with the intent to consume it, and he or she failed to take reasonable steps to prevent possession or consumption by the underage person.”
The social host ordinance violations were dismissed. According to Cook County Chief Deputy Leif Lunde, the deputies who responded prioritized their efforts on juveniles and fleeing suspects. Lunde said sober adults were allowed to leave the party area without being identified. “Since we do not know who those adults were or what role they may have had, all social host violations were dismissed. The county attorney did not believe anyone should be charged, knowing that it was likely that some of the violators were allowed to leave unidentified,” said Lunde.
However, Sheriff Mark Falk said he believes the social host ordinance will be a useful tool in the future, because without it adults at these types of events are “virtually untouchable.”
Asked why it took so long for all of the cases from August 4 to be processed, Lunde said the length of the court process depends on the suspect and whether he or she requests trial continuances, change of venue, contests evidence and so on. “Since we only have court every three weeks, anytime a case is continued, it is a three-week delay,” he replied.
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