Haverford Party Raided by State Police, 31 Cited
This story was written by Michael Novinson, with contributions from Jonathan Yu and Travis Taylor, all of The Bi-Co News, where it originally appeared. The News also printed an article about the raid's legality, a timeline of the raid, and a piece about comments on the Facebook event listing. The original Facebook event can be found here.
Nearly 400 Bi-Co students planned to “drink your first week sorrows away” during Thursday night’s Lloyd Around the World party, but the public Facebook event attracted an uninvited guest – the Pennsylvania State Police.
— William N. La Torre, police officer in charge of the raid
About 15 officers from the state’s Bureau of Liquor Control Enforcement crashed the party at Haverford’s Lloyd Hall and detained approximately 40 students, citing 27 Haverford students and four Bryn Mawr students for underage drinking at a Lloyd Hall party.
“I hope this will set the tone for the freshman here,” said Sgt. William N. La Torre, who commanded the police force at Lloyd. He said Haverford students have a false sense of security regarding underage drinking on campus.
A first citation offense carries a maximum penalty of $300 and 90 days imprisonment along with a 90-day driver’s license suspension. However, it isn’t a misdemeanor and does not appear on the student’s permanent record.
It is possible for the District Attorney to place the student in an alcohol education program, if they are approached pre-trial. The state police will recommend that all students cited at Lloyd become eligible for the program, according to a e-mail sent midday Friday by President Dr. Stephen G. Emerson ’74, Dean of Student Life Steve Watter, and Director of Safety and Security Tom King. At the completion of the program all fines will be waived and the record will be wiped clean.
An anonymous person alerted state police to the party on Wednesday, at which point the police searched Facebook and MySpace for more information. La Torre said that the person also contacted police on Aug. 28 about Sunday’s First Drinker party, but police didn’t receive the message until Monday.
Neither police nor the Haverford administration identified the anonymous person, but Quaker Bouncers Co-Head Becca Varon ’10 said they were a student.
The Lloyd Around the World Facebook event contains implicit references to alcohol, promising “an eclectic variety of drinks.” The police checked the Facebook profiles of students who planned to attend and saw that many of them were under the legal drinking age of 21.
At that point, La Torre decided that his officers would attend the party as well.
“It wasn’t very bright to advertise an underage drinking party,” said La Torre, who has jurisdiction over Delaware, Philadelphia and Chester counties. La Torre’s liquor control office does not monitor Bryn Mawr since it is located in Montgomery County.
Dean of Student Life Steve Watter agreed with La Torre’s assessment. “If students continue to use web-based groups, the chance of police returning is very high,” he said.
La Torre’s office has undertaken the College Enforcement Initiative, which intends to set tough alcohol standards for the entire school year through heightened enforcement of underage drinking during September and October. La Torre’s unit cited 25 students for underage drinking following the Thursday afternoon football game between Villanova and Temple at Lincoln Financial Field.
Haverford's Lloyd Hall. Photo from the Haverford College Office of Disability Services.La Torre’s officers arrived at Lloyd around 10:30 p.m. dressed as college students and interacted with partygoers for over 30 minutes to assess the situation. The state police did not inform Haverford Safety and Security and local police of their arrival, and Emerson wasn’t aware of the College Enforcement Initiative.
Once they confirmed the presence of underage drinking, the undercover police revealed their true identity and intervened.
“The goal was to stop the event at the beginning,” La Torre said. By the time the raid began, though, virtually all of the alcohol had been consumed, eyewitnesses said.
Around 11:10 p.m., La Torre’s officers began rounding up people at Lloyd 10’s, asking students who couldn’t prove they were at least 21 to sit on the ground. La Torre said protocol was to ask students to cooperate, and if they didn’t comply, his officers would give loud commands, which would be followed by the use of physical force if cooperation wasn’t achieved.
After a belligerent student broke La Torre’s glasses, La Torre said his officers became more defensive and physically prepared in all detaining procedures. However, he said no students were injured in the process.
Students ordered to their knees by police officers witnessed multiple undercover and uniformed male police officers leading away and restraining an intoxicated, resistant female and several uniformed police officers forcing a male student to the ground after he resisted police orders.
Once the uniformed police began shining their flashlights around Lloyd Green, eyewitnesses saw upperclassmen hiding underage, intoxicated students inside Lloyd Hall. The police didn’t search the building, according to a Friday morning e-mail message from the Students’ Council and Honor Council Co-Presidents and Co-Chairs.
By 11:30 p.m., police officers had detained about 40 people – all students at Haverford or Bryn Mawr — on Lloyd Green, at which point the police individually questioned students about alcohol consumption, breathalyzed them and recorded personal information at three stations set up near the suite entrances.
Honor Council Co-Chair Gabe Schwartz ’10 alerted President Dr. Stephen G. Emerson ’74 to the raid with an 11:14 p.m. phone call.
Emerson and Watter arrived on Lloyd Green around 11:50 p.m. and consulted with students about their well-being. Emerson said the administration and Safety and Security should educate students about making good choices rather than enforce state laws.
“Part of growing up is to learn how things actually work in the real world,” he said.
He said the administration hasn’t turned a blind eye to underage drinking — on the contrary, he believes the administration emphasized the importance of state drinking laws and alcohol awareness during Customs Week. La Torre said no evidence exists of the administration turning a blind eye toward underage drinking.
The administration will hold a forum on the police raid at 4 p.m. Friday in Founders Great Hall.
Two dozens students remained detained at 12:15 a.m. Friday and all students had been released by 1:15 a.m. No students were charged with supplying alcohol to minors – a misdemeanor offense – and nobody were arrested.
La Torre said the liquor control enforcement will have no further involvement with the Lloyd case. He plans to work with Safety and Security to avoid future underage drinking incidents.
“The state police aren’t going to target Haverford,” he said.
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#1: 9/7/2009 at 4:46 p.m.
“Part of growing up is to learn how things actually work in the real world,” he said.
In the "real world" an adult is allowed to drink with their friends at a private party and not worry about it getting raided. Everyone there had to be 18- a legal adult. this drinking age thing is stupid totally ridiculous.
“I hope this will set the tone for the freshman here,” said Sgt. William N. La Torre, who commanded the police force at Lloyd.
Set the tone of not trusting the cops if there is a real emergency and somebody really needs medical/professional help?
— AP | Unregistered, Swarthmore
#2: 9/7/2009 at 5:00 p.m.
Haverford yr doin' it wrong.
Public FB event? Obviously teenagers and cops would be attracted. If you want to buck the law, you should do it intelligently.
— Argos | Unregistered, Swarthmore
#3: 9/7/2009 at 8:31 p.m.
To the Pennsylvania State Police, I say "Bravo, it's about time!" The college's policy on underage drinking is as laughable at best, all but encouraging underage drinking with a sly wink. That anyone would be upset about the police busting an orgy of illegal activities is unfathomable. These Haverford students' behaviour is reckless, sinful and--dare I say it--un-Christian. The sooner Sgt. La Torre brings his justice to Olde Club, the better.
— j | Unregistered, Swarthmore
#4: 9/7/2009 at 11:11 p.m.
As much as underage drinking can lead to problems, I would hope that the state police would have better things to do than to party at, and then raid Haverford. Things they could do: Enforce DUI laws, as this actually protects others on the road, esp during a holiday weekend; solve homicide cases, such as in Philly, Allentown and Pittsburgh; protect at-risk neighborhoods from crime; mentor at-risk youths, to prevent street crime and gang warfare. I am not sure how they even have Haverford parties in their jurisdiction, but if they want to protect people, go to where the real crimes are, and take on the serious threats to society. What a waste of money and precious law enforcement resources. The only ones who will profit are the attorneys that parents will pay big bucks to so as to get their sweeties out of trouble.
— parent2 | Unregistered, Non-Swarthmore
#5: 9/8/2009 at 1:02 p.m.
J, I love you.
And parent2, enforcing DUI laws, solving homicide cases, protecting at-risk neighborhoods and all that junk is HARD. Wouldn't it be fun to take a night off, crash a college party, and then mess with them? Put yourself in their shoes.
— Peter '11 | Unregistered, Swarthmore
#6: 9/8/2009 at 10:09 p.m.
I just don't understand how they have jurisdiction over a party on a college campus, and yet the state police don't seem to be in the cities combating crime. Any of your parents PA attorneys who could explain this? I hope that Swat is taking steps to prevent this from happening.
Are the Parlour Parties still going to take place? It's very worrisome that the police are so interested in these local colleges. Do they dare to go into Philly to protect students? There are some dangerous areas around some of the city colleges. Guess you're right Peter, it would be more work for them. But it must've been pretty creepy to have been dancing with a "young person" who turned out to then bust you.
— parent2 | Unregistered, Non-Swarthmore
#7: 9/9/2009 at 11:43 a.m.
parent 2:
Swarthmore had its own incident along these lines. I can't remember the year, but sometime in the late 90s, or early 2000s. State Liquor board undercover agents actually walked into an all-campus party, hung around for awhile, and then cited a bunch of underage students. It was a big brouhaha. Lots of coverage in the Phoenix. Lots of discussion, as you can imagine.
Swarthmore's response was to beef up the Party Associates program, specifically tasking them with checking every ID before allowing entry to an event. The explicit goal here was to turn away non-Tri-College people (including State Liquor board agents and/or local high school students) at the door because it's a private function closed to non-students. At that point, the undercover agents would have to produce a search warrant to the College with probably cause. If Swarthmore Party Associates have grown lax in ID checking, now would probably be a good time to stiffen it up again!
As I understand it, the Haverford Party was outdoors. That's a different challenge because now we are talking about a more or less public space. Also note that this wasn't a random police action. A Haverford student acted as an informant and called the state police about the upcoming party, perhaps thinking the highly-touted Honor Code applied to state law???
If you think this one is ugly, when this kind of raid happened at Williams about ten years ago, the town police ARRESTED the head of Williams College security for allowing alcohol to be served to minors. Now, THAT is some town/gown tension...
— a parent | Unregistered, Non-Swarthmore