SALEM — It's hard to imagine a less likely place for three college students to do some underage drinking than the parking lot of a police station.
But that's exactly what three Salem State College students were caught doing early Saturday morning.
Now they'll spend the next six months on unsupervised probation, after admitting they were sharing a bottle of rum right outside the Salem police headquarters on Margin Street.
"You guys picked a great place to drink," Judge Richard Mori told them in Salem District Court yesterday.
It all started when Thomas McCarthy, 18, of 115 Weatherly Drive; Wayne Kenneth Renard Jr., 18, of 1011âÑ2 Ocean Ave.; and Christopher Maxon, 18, of 5 Williams St., went down to the station to report that one of them was the victim of a hit-and-run accident, Salem police Lt. Conrad Prosniewski said.
They were asked to wait for an officer on patrol to come into the station to take their report.
The three decided to wait outside — and apparently kill some time with a 1.75-liter bottle of Bruga Dominican rum.
When Sgt. Richard Gagnon and Patrolman Fred Ryan pulled into the station parking lot, they noticed the three young men in the hedge behind the Police Department's sign, Prosniewski said.
Maxon and Renard were arrested after police confirmed that they were underage, Prosniewski said. McCarthy took off on foot and was arrested after a brief chase a couple of blocks away on High Street.
Charges of being minors in possession of alcohol and public drinking were continued without a finding for six months. If the three stay out of further trouble, their cases will be dismissed.
The judge asked the three their majors — "not criminal justice, I hope," he said.
Maxon said he's a marketing major. McCarthy is studying sports, fitness and leisure. Renard is undeclared.
Cesar Archilla, who represented Maxon, said outside court that he couldn't explain the teens' decision-making process that night.
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