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Harvard doctor defends actions after party arrest in N.H.

E-mail|Link|Comments () June 8, 2010 12:29 PM

By Martin Finucane, Globe Staff

A psychiatrist who teaches at Harvard Medical School said today he didn't know that students were drinking at a high school graduation party he hosted in New Hampshire.

J. Wesley Boyd, 46, of Needham and his wife, Theonia, 49, a pathologist who also teaches at the medical school, were both arrested at the party Sunday night after police alleged that underage drinking was going on at the Weare, N.H., event.

Boyd said today he and his wife had told the students from the St. Paul's School in Concord who were graduating with his daughter that there would be no drugs or alcohol allowed at the party. He also said he and his wife and another couple had monitored the party without seeing any alcohol.

He said several of the students had since apologized, telling him that they had been hiding the drinking from him,

"My wife and I have gone back over each decision along the way that we made and there's nothing necessarily we would have done differently," he said.

He said if there was one error he and his wife made, it would be the size of the party, which was attended by dozens of people at a large house, with fields in both front and back, that Boyd had borrowed from a friend.

"I would keep it smaller or have five times as many chaperones – and in a confined place," he said.

Weare Police didn't immediately return a message seeking comment.

About 70 teenagers were taken into protective custody. Boyd and his wife face charges of facilitating an underage drinking party, the Associated Press reported.