Club fined for serving to minor

Representatives of Terrace Club's graduate board have pled guilty to charges of serving alcohol to a minor, Borough Police said Tuesday. A municipal court has ordered the club to pay a fine of $664 and to stop serving alcohol between May 8 and May 31.

The charges stem from a Feb. 25 incident at the club, where an intoxicated 19-year-old female student fell down the stairs during initiations and had to be transported by paramedics to the University Medical Center due to a minor concussion.

Terrace graduate board chairman David Willard '60 declined to comment on why the graduate board chose to plead guilty, saying only, "We thought it was best for everybody."

Willard and others declined to comment on the incident in greater detail, but Bob Wills, an attorney for the trustees, said the incident involved an initiate whose fall "may or may not have been related to the alcohol that she may or may not have consumed at Terrace."

Though charges related to the Feb. 25 incident were originally brought against club president Patti Chao '07, they were later shifted to the trustees because "ultimately they're responsible for the club," Borough Police Lt. Dennis McManimon said.

While eating club officers have been charged continually in recent years for serving alcohol to minors, the legal action against Terrace is notable because the club's graduate board, not its undergraduate officers, was brought to court.

"To charge an individual simply because they had been president of a club at the time when an incident occurred seemed unreasonable," Wills said. Chao had only been president for a few weeks when the incident occurred.

Chao could not be reached for comment, and Terrace vice president Ben Cholok '07 declined to comment.

The order will likely not affect this weekend's Houseparties at Terrace, since the ban will not take effect until Monday.

Terrace officers have scheduled a club-wide mandatory meeting before dinner tonight, in which members will meet with Wills and sign a "mandatory members' agreement, completion of which is imperative for Houseparty attendance," according to an email obtained by The Daily Princetonian.

McManimon emphasized that if the club disregards the ban, serious legal consequences could result. "[The decision is] a huge threat," he said. "If they were found to be serving alcohol, that would be contempt of a court order."

The club will also face severe punishment if caught serving to minors again. "The Club was warned," the press release said, "that future problems could lead to the more serious charge of Maintaining a Nuisance being filed, which could result in the Club being closed for up to one year."

A charge of maintaining a nuisance, which punishes an individual who "knowingly conducts or maintains any premises, place or resort where persons gather for purposes of engaging in unlawful conduct," had originally been brought against the club but was eventually dropped in the proceedings.

Wills said that this charge would have proved more difficult to prosecute because the police would need to show several transgressions "over a period of time" rather than a single incident.

University spokeswoman Cass Cliatt '96 said that while the Borough police informed the University of the charges, the incident will not affect the relationship between Nassau Hall and the clubs.

"We believe, of course, that students should obey the law," Cliatt said, "but what remains consistent is that ... we don't have a relationship with the clubs that would put us in an enforcement role. That would be a matter for the graduate boards."

About a month ago, Terrace took the dramatic step of barring indefinitely those unaffiliated with the club from its social events. The reasons for the decision still remain unclear.

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