GLASTONBURY — Parents who police said allowed underaged drinking at a weekend house party attended by more than 100 teenagers face criminal charges.
Christopher Nixon, 49, and his wife, Shawn Nixon, 50, of Hanover Fields Road were charged Friday night with allowing minors to possess alcohol, police said Tuesday. Officers found more than 100 teens between the ages of 15 and 17 years old inside the house; more had attended the party but ran away.
In the yard, they found beer, liquor, drug paraphernalia and a teenaged boy vomiting, police said. The smell of marijuana emanated from the basement.
The party happened in the same neighborhood where Jane Modlesky, a teenager who died in a one-car crash last summer, lived. Police have been investigating whether Modlesky had been at an underaged drinking party before the SUV she was driving went off Woodhaven Road in July, striking several trees.
As police investigated her death, they learned that a 17-year-old had provided alcoholic drinks to minors and charged the teen with two counts of allowing minors to possess alcohol. The investigation of the circumstances surrounding Modlesky’s death continues, Agent James A. Kennedy said Tuesday.
Police were tipped off about the Hanover Fields Road party ahead of time, he said, and more people called police when they saw a large number of cars arriving in the area. The invitation said parents were going to be there, he said.
The Nixons did not provide the alcohol or other illegal substances to the teens. But they knew about the alcohol and “turned a blind eye,” he said.
“The parents both knew there was alcohol there, and they didn’t do anything about it,” Kennedy said. Shawn Nixon told police that she’d rather the teens have a safe place to be as opposed to going to a club, he said.
Not all of the teens at the party were invited, Kennedy said.
By Christine Dempsey, Hartford Courant