Social host law hard to enforce, DAs say
Snags cited in teen drinking cases
In the summer of 2003, tragedy struck twice on the South Shore.
Three teenage girls, two from Weymouth and one from Scituate, were killed in two drunken-driving accidents in the span of two weeks after parties where minors were drinking. Prosecutors brought charges against the party hosts under the state's Social Host Responsibility Law, which makes it a crime to allow minors to drink at your home.
But, in a separate fatal crash after another party this fall, Nathaniel Berberian, 20, will apparently not face charges in the deaths of two sisters, Shauna and Meghan Murphy. Last week, Worcester District Attorney John J. Conte said there was insufficient evidence to bring a criminal charge against the host, despite a Northborough police investigation that alleged the teens had been drinking at Berberian's home before the fatal crash.
The handling of the cases on the South Shore and in Northborough highlights the broad discretion and legal difficulties in enforcing state laws aimed at people who furnish alcohol to minors. Though district attorneys in Massachusetts have brought charges against underage party hosts, prosecutors and police say they often find it difficult to bring a solid case because they often have to rely on circumstantial evidence and the testimony of fellow party-goers, who are reluctant to turn in their peers.
''It's almost impossible to prove," said Bristol District Attorney Paul F. Walsh Jr.
Other prosecutors said it can be difficult to pinpoint where a teen became drunk. It is difficult, they said, to build a case on evidence that cannot be proven beyond a reasonable doubt.
''Even as horrendous as the outcomes of the improper use of alcohol are, particularly by young people, all of the same protections in the Constitution sense attach," said Michael O'Keefe, district attorney for the Cape and Islands.
The recent deaths of the Murphy sisters took on political implications last week after Attorney General Thomas F. Reilly, who is friends with the Murphy family, acknowledged he had called Conte to urge him not to release autopsy reports in the case to the media. Reilly was accused by Governor Mitt Romney of attempting to stifle the investigation, which police closed last week after Conte declined to prosecute.
The Social Host Responsibility Law was enacted in 2000, four years after the death of Gregory Smith, 18, of Marshfield, who left a graduation party in Cohasset, slammed his car into a telephone pole, and died. His blood-alcohol level was .19, more than twice the legal limit. Cohasset businessman John Lennon, who hosted the party, was acquitted of providing alcohol to a minor.
Today, anyone who owns or controls a property can be charged if a minor is drinking there, even if the person does not provide the alcohol. The crime is a misdemeanor and offenders can face up to a year in jail and a $2,000 fine.
Exact figures on the number of cases brought against party hosts such as Berberian are hard to come by, largely because the Social Host Responsibility Law is part of a broader statute that covers other related offenses, including adults buying alcohol for minors, and establishments selling it to minors.
The Essex district attorney's office estimates that it has prosecuted more than 20 cases under the Social Host Responsibility Law since 2000. In Norfolk County, where the Smith case occurred in 2000, prosecutors have brought only a few cases, said David Traub, spokesman for the district attorney's office; he said a specific figure was not available. In Bristol County, the district attorney said he could not remember a single case since 2000.
Other district attorneys' offices late last week could only provide figures for the statute as a whole, including cases against establishments serving minors.
O'Keefe said his office had brought just a handful of cases under the overall statute since it was enacted in 2000; specific statistics were not available, he said.
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Plymouth County has filed charges against 90 people under the overall law, while Middlesex County has filed at least 277 charges since 2002, the only data available late last week. Suffolk County, which had statistics available only from last year, filed charges against 88 people in 2005.
Numbers from Conte's office, which reviewed the recent deaths of the Murphy sisters, were not available, nor were statistics from Hampden and Berkshire counties.
Wayne Sampson, president of the Massachusetts Chiefs of Police Association, said that although police might have a solid case against someone who buys beer for his underage brother, it can be tough to prove in court that a minor ''controls" his parents' house when they aren't home, which is a legal definition in the Social Host Responsibility Law.
''If they have supplied the alcohol, it's very easy," said Sampson, the police chief in Shrewsbury. ''But where young people actually bring their own alcohol, it's more difficult."
In the Northborough case, Shauna Murphy, 17, brought vodka with her to Berberian's home, according to the Northborough police report. Conte stressed that Northborough police could have brought a case against Berberian to District Court themselves had they chosen to, though he made clear that he didn't believe it would have been substantiated. Police can bring such cases directly to clerk magistrates to decide whether charges are warranted.
Conte also said that party-goers were at Berberian's Northborough house last fall before he even got home. ''That doesn't show much control," Conte said.
''This young man did not supply any alcohol," Conte said Friday, adding that it would have been a ''stretch" to bring charges.
Sampson and some prosecutors said that police in underage drinking cases are inclined to target parents or others who actively supply alcohol to minors. That, he said, was the point of the law passed six years ago.
''I believe the intent was to prevent parents or people that are of legal age from hosting these types of parties, and I believe that [for] all of law enforcement, our major concern is in that direction," Sampson said.
Sometimes prosecutors do bring cases, however, as they did in 2003 on the South Shore. That summer, Shannon Dwyer, 19, of Scituate, hit a tree after drinking beer at two friends' houses. Two weeks later, Jenelle Desmond, 16, and Kristin Carriere, 15, both of Weymouth, died in an accident after another party when the car they were riding in slammed into a cemetery fence in Norwell.
Three underage young men who hosted those parties were later prosecuted under the Social Host Responsibility Law. (Each had his case continued without a finding and was ordered to perform community service.)
Prosecutors said they hope the law acts as a deterrent. If the threat of criminal penalties is not enough, they say, parents should at least fear a civil lawsuit.
''I do think, overall, as penalties have become stiffer, people's drinking-and-driving behavior has changed," said Martha Coakley, the district attorney in Middlesex County, who teams up with a civil lawyer to talk to parents' groups about the criminal and civil risks of teens and alcohol. ''Unfortunately not enough. We still have a lot of carnage on the highways."
Prosecutors said it is hard to tell if the social host law is having an effect, based on the number of prosecutions so far.
Richard Campbell, a Boston lawyer who joins district attorneys in talks to parents about teens and drinking, said prosecutors should make the violations of the law more of a priority, as they have with drunken driving. ''It should be treated the same," he said, ''because the catastrophes are the same."
Frank Phillips of the Globe staff contributed to this report. Scott Helman can be reached at shelman@globe.com; Maria Sacchetti can be reached at sacchetti@globe.com. 
