Stacy E. Smith
FORTVILLE — Dozens of empty beer cans and bottles and a number of whiskey and rum bottles were scattered throughout the house. There were also beer-pong and bong tables set up in the garage, along with alcohol-laced jello shots. Most of the alcohol, police say, was consumed by minors.
Nearly 30 teenagers were supplied alcohol by a Fortville woman during a birthday party she threw for one of the teenagers at her home in mid-October, according to a charging document.
As a result, Stacy Eileen Smith, 53, 1300 block of West Crystal Drive, was arrested and charged with two Level 6 felony counts of neglect of a dependent and two Class B misdemeanor counts of furnishing alcohol to a minor, according to the documents.
The incident, in the early-morning hours of Sunday, Oct. 17, however, runs much deeper than the lone adult at the party being charged. Dozens of teenagers now must face the consequences of choosing to drink alcohol at the party, thanks to the efforts of the Hancock County Underage Drinking Task Force, a special law enforcement detail aimed at stopping such abuse.
Prosecutor Brent Eaton noted the young people will face alcohol-related charges through the county’s juvenile probation department. A handful who were over 18 may face adult charges. In all, 28 young people were detained.
“A lot of bad situations can come from these types of alcohol-fueled parties with teenagers,” Eaton said. “Fortunately, we haven’t had many of these kind of parties lately, until this one popped up.”
Law enforcement and officials with the county’s Neighborhoods Against Substance Abuse program say that thanks to the task force, parties like the one broken up on Oct. 17 are an anomaly.
“Word has gotten out that we have an Underage Drinking Task Force, so a lot of kids will instead go elsewhere and stay out of our county because they know we’re pretty aggressive with stopping underage drinking,” Fortville Police Chief Patrick Bratton said.
Statistics gathered by NASA suggest the task force has had an effect: 34.1% of high school seniors surveyed in the county in 2013 admitted they had used alcohol within a 30-day period. By 2021, that number had dropped to 20.1%. A similar trend has been noted with binge drinking: In 2013, 19.2% of the seniors who took the survey admitted to drinking a large quantity of alcohol in a short period of time within two weeks prior to taking the survey. The number dropped to 11.5% in 2014 and was as low as 7% in 2018 and 2019 before creeping back up to 10.1% in 2021.
“The task force is a prevention tool,” said Tim Retherford, NASA executive director. “We know peer pressure is real and teenagers will sometimes make poor decisions, but we want kids to know there are consequences.”
According to a probable cause affidavit, officers from the Fortville Police Department were called to the Fortville address as a result of a noise complaint. When they arrived, police could see numerous juveniles downstairs and upstairs holding what appeared to be alcoholic beverages.
When officers entered the home, many of the teenagers tried to flee, some even jumping out back windows. But most were corralled back into the home, where officers gathered names and ages and conducted testing for intoxication levels, the affidavit said.
Smith, officials noted in the affidavit, was visibly intoxicated and showed severe signs of impairment. She was the only adult present and told officers she alone had consumed all the alcohol, the affidavit said.
Smith was arrested and taken to the county jail; the teenagers were asked to call their parents to pick them up.
Retherford said the Underage Drinking Task Force was created in 2013 after officials became concerned about many alcohol-related teen issues. Since then, leaders of the task force — composed of county law enforcement, probation officers, the prosecutor’s office, school administrators and more — say alcohol usage by teenagers has dropped considerably.
The NASA data gathers information on 30-day alcohol use trends and binge drinking by county teens. The organization uses an Indiana Youth Survey conducted by Prevention Insights at Indiana University to help gather the information. The survey is given to all county teens each spring.
“Prior to 2013, things were just done differently in each area and we didn’t have enough partners on board like we do now,” Retherford said. “The approach was never uniform like it is now, and that makes a big difference.”
He also noted three of the four county schools have drug testing programs they utilize if officials think teens are abusing alcohol and drugs.
In addition to the Underage Drinking Task Force, NASA works with a youth council, composed of four teens from each county high school, to help educate classmates about the dangers and troubles that come when teenagers use alcohol.
Eastern Hancock Principal Adam Barton feels the student-led coalition, which speaks often on the dangers of alcohol, has been helpful.
“The parents will always say, ‘don’t do this,’ and teachers will tell kids, ‘don’t do this,’ but when one of your peers says that, it has a different impact,” Barton said.
Barton noted officials are not naive enough to think the problem of underage drinking has gone away or that kids don’t figure out ways to skirt detection, but for the most part he feels the county’s approach is a proactive way to deal with the problem.
“If kids know there is a chance they can get busted, they’ll think twice knowing they’ve got too much to lose,” Barton said.
The teenagers under 18 from the party are being supervised through juvenile probation, which can require education, community service hours and informal probation, which calls for random drug testing in some cases. Those over 18 may face an adult charge for underage drinking, but if it’s a first offense, they can go into a diversion program that will allow the offense to be expunged once the offender meets outlined goals.
“The great part about the prosecutor’s program is that in order to be eligible they have to do an educational class and a community service element,” Retherford said. “The whole idea is to be a deterrent.”
Retherford noted Sheriff Brad Burkhart has taken a lead role in trying to prevent underage drinking in the county and has even been known to knock on a door himself if he gets wind of a teenage alcohol or drug-related party.
“We couldn’t be more pleased with the help Sheriff Burkhart has shown in trying to keep kids safe,” Retherford said.
Officials noted good kids make bad decisions, but the hope is to keep high school students away from alcohol-fueled parties or people who are willing to supply them with alcohol.
“We want teenagers to think twice about taking part in something like the party in Fortville,” Retherford said. “We hope the task force can help keep trends down, but we know some will continue to make poor decisions.”
As for Smith, Judge Dan Marshal set a $2,000 cash bond and entered a not-guilty plea on her behalf in Hancock County Superior Court 2. Smith has since bonded out of jail and has a pretrial conference set for Dec. 10.
