Fifty-seven students were arrested Friday night for underage liquor consumption at a party at 1806 Diamond St. in what police are calling a “speak-easy bust,” WPVI-TV reported yesterday.
A representative from Temple University Campus Safety Services stated that the Liquor Control Board was responsible for this bust. Campus Safety Services Capt. Robert Lowell could not be reached for comment Monday.
Cody Spence, an undeclared freshman, was at the party when the raid occurred. Spence said he saw Temple Police at the party in addition to the undercover state police who supposedly set up the raid.
“I was in the basement, then I think two Temple police [officers] came down and told us to get against the wall,” Spence said. “I’m pretty sure it was run by state police, not Temple.”
The students were informed that they will be required to attend a court hearing in December, where they will be asked to plead ‘guilty’ or ‘not guilty’ to charges of underage liquor consumption.
“I would assume you’d plead guilty, because if you didn’t say that [you were drinking], you had to wait in the basement until you got breathalyzed. I don’t really know how you could plead not guilty,” Spence said.
WPVI-TV also reported on its Web site that four people may be charged with selling alcohol without a license and selling alcohol to minors, in addition to the students who received citations.
Spence said that the police told the arrested students that upon pleading guilty, they would have the option of paying a $500 fine or doing 24 hours of community service for the underage drinking citation.
He said that most students he knows said they are planning to opt to do the community service.
Morgan A. Zalot can be reached at Morgan.zalot@temple.edu
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