Charter trial set for April 20

Princeton Borough will present its case against Charter Club in a trial scheduled for April 20, Charter attorney Rocco Cipparone confirmed in an e-mail.

Though he declined to answer any questions about the case prior to the trial, Cipparone said he expected the matter to “last a few hours at most.”

Last fall, the Borough charged the club with two counts of serving alcohol to minors and two counts of maintaining a nuisance. The charges resulted from two separate incidents during the 2007-08 academic year, Cipparone told The Daily Princetonian last September. The first incident occurred on Dec. 1, 2007, and the second took place on April 5, 2008.

Each offense normally carries a sentence of up to six months in prison and a $1,000 fine. If the club is convicted of the charges, however, it is unlikely that any individual will go to jail.

The Borough originally charged former club president Will Scharf ’08 in February 2008, but those charges were dropped the next month. Cipparone explained last fall that the prosecutor was able to bring charges stemming from the incident a second time because the current charges are against the club as a whole.

While Scharf announced in March 2008 his intention to sue the Borough, he never filed a civil suit.

In the December 2007 incident, Paige Schmidt ’08 poured beer on Kara Murphy ’09. Murphy then struck Schmidt, who called the police.

Murphy said that she was questioned by the Borough Police after the incident but never told them that Charter had served alcohol to her. Instead, she said, she told the police that Charter was checking identification at the club’s entrance and was using a wristband system to identify students of legal drinking age. Murphy was under 21 at the time and told the ‘Prince’ in March 2008 she was neither issued a wristband nor served alcohol on the night in question.

The second incident involved David Freifeld ’11, who was found intoxicated and vomiting in Charter Club. Club members subsequently called Public Safety.

Freifeld was subpoenaed by the Borough and appeared in court last September. He said in an e-mail to the ‘Prince’ last fall that he told the Borough prosecutor he didn’t drink at Charter.