Charges do Not Issue After Clerk Magistrate Hearing for CPA Hosting Underaged High School Students to a Night of Drinking in Suburban Home

This past Halloween a middle aged couple permitted their sixteen year old son to have a party at their suburban Boston home. Neighbors started to complain about the noise. The police went to the home to investigate the noise complaint. When they arrived they observed about 20 teenagers who apparently had been drinking. The floors of the home were covered with beer and there were empty bottles and cans throughout the home. The parents were uncooperative and extremely rude to the responding officers. Each was given a summons for a clerk’s hearing charging them with keeping a disorderly home under G.L. c. 272 section 53, disturbing the peace under the same statute and social hosting in violation of G.L. c. 138 section 34. The severity of these crimes cannot be understated. Adults violating the social host laws do go to jail in Massachusetts. The woman in our case hired our office to represent her. A compassionate police prosecutor and an understanding clerk magistrate agreed not to issue the criminal complaint. Rather, it was held for a year. If the defendant does not commit any crimes the complaint will never be issued. 

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