Parents jailed for serving beer at son's birthday

Although their actions were illegal, they were quite sensible. Was there a point in pressing charges? If the prosecutor was hell-bent on pressing charges, could s/he not have bargained down to a misdemanor, and given a nominal fine? Two years in prison for allowing teens to drink but taking their car keys away and having them spend the night in the house seems excessive. Very excessive. This is no Guantanamo or Abu Ghraib, but I worry for the prosecutor's soul.




TWO Americans started a two-year prison sentence for serving beer and other alcohol at their son's 16th birthday party, authorities said.
The drinking age in the United States is 21, but Elisa Kelly, 42, and George Robinson, 52, decided to buy alcohol for their son Ryan's party, which was attended by about 30 people between 12 and 18 years old, on August 16, 2002.

Concerned that the teenagers would drink without supervision, the parents said they had bought alcohol with the understanding that the teens would spend the night at their place and collected half a dozen car keys to prevent drunk-driving.

After receiving three calls reporting possible underage drinking, police broke up the party near Charlottesville, Virginia, and arrested Kelly and Robinson.

The parents, who have since divorced, were sentenced to four years and six months in prison - six months for each of the nine teenagers who were found to have “measurable levels” of alcohol in their system. Half the sentence was suspended.

Robinson and Kelly had appealed the sentence all the way up to the Supreme Court, which refused to hear their case on May 21.