SALEM — Craig Snow found out the hard way that letting teens drink in your house can leave you liable for serious civil and criminal penalties.
Snow, 19 and a Lynn resident, was charged this week with violating the Social Host Liability Law in an incident that led to the death of 19-year-old Julia Gauthier of Salem last March. She was killed in a car accident after leaving a party at Snow's house.
The social host law holds people responsible for underaged drinking on properties where they have "dominion and control." It carries a penalty of up to one year in jail and a $2,000 fine, according to Steve O'Connell, spokesman for Essex County District Attorney Jonathan Blodgett.
The law has been championed by Blodgett, who tours the North Shore, along with Boston lawyer Richard Campbell, alerting parents and others to its grim possibilities. In civil courts, people who allow underaged drinking can find themselves on the hook for judgments reaching $1 million.
In this case, Campbell predicts that if Snow is convicted, he will spend time in jail.
Police believe the young man was obligated to prevent drinking at his home. Christopher Maxson, 19, of Marblehead left Snow's party, drove through two stop signs and was hit by a second vehicle before careening into three others, police said. His Toyota 4Runner SUV flipped onto its side, and Gauthier, who was a passenger in the car, was partially ejected through the sunroof and killed.
She had been a star athlete and top student at Salem High School, where she graduated 10th in her class.
Maxson, Gauthier's boyfriend, was charged with vehicular homicide while driving drunk and recklessly, drunken driving, driving to endanger, and failing to stop.
"Snow admitted during an interview with the investigating officer that he had hosted the party and that attendees had brought their own alcohol, which was consumed on the premises," Lynn Police Lt. William Sharpe said in a press release. "He also acknowledged that Maxson and his passengers had attended the party."
At the time, Snow's parents were out of state.
The law specifically addresses the notion that some people might bring their own alcohol, Campbell says. That does not mitigate the host's responsibility.
Likewise, people Snow's age have been held responsible in such cases before, Blodgett aide Tom Donovan said. In one case, a defendant appealed claiming that being under 21, and not responsible enough to drink, he could not be held responsible for preventing others from drinking in his home. The Appeals Court rejected that argument, Donovan said.
Essex County has prosecuted such matters successfully, he added, even sending some people to jail. Nancy St. Jean of Haverhill was the first person sentenced under the law, given six months following the death of a 16-year-old boy who was kicked out of a party and died of exposure and blood loss after punching a window.
The law was passed following cases where parents allowed underaged drinking in the belief it kept kids safe and under some sort of supervision. In some cases, tragedies followed.
"That an underage drinking party can be controlled is a fallacy," O'Connell said.
Lt. Sharpe suggested that the public remember the social host law as the "prom and summer seasons" begin. It is a time when young people are often involved in accidents.
Campbell recalled speaking at a school where one administrator responded to parents complaining because they were asked to hear a lecture on the social host law on a work night.
"He said, 'I'm sick and tired of burying your kids.'"
Information about the law
District Attorney Jonathan Blodgett has posted information about underage drinking and the Social Host Liability Law online at www.mass.gov/essexda.
The information includes a video with excerpts of the Social Host Liability Law presentation that Blodgett made with Attorney Scott Heidorn at Lynn English High School in March, and links to two other websites.
The websites are www.teen-safe.org, which features Dr. John Knight, director of the Center for Adolescent Substance Abuse Research at Children's Hospital; and the Partnership for a Drug-Free America's www.timetotalk.org, which has specific advice on how to talk to teens about alcohol and drugs.
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