Residents fined $12,000 from party bust
WHITEWATER — Two residents face more than $12,000 in fines related to an underage drinking party last month in which Whitewater police issued 132 citations.
Alek J. Konopacki and Christian A. Albouras, both 23, were ticketed for furnishing alcohol to underage people and selling alcohol without a license. Whitewater Police Chief Jim Coan said Friday the fines total about $6,200 each.
On Oct. 21, police interrupted a large-scale party at 928 W. Highland St. The majority of those at the home were UW-Whitewater students, police said. However, only about 20 of them were of legal drinking age.
A Walworth County search warrant revealed that local police used undercover students to gather evidence of illegal activity at college parties. Coan said the department was proactively cracking down on underage drinking parties all across the city.
University officials said students can be disciplined for off-campus incidents, and they review each case individually.
Konopacki and Albouras are seniors at UW-Whitewater. Mary Beth Mackin, assistant dean of students, said the university is looking into the matter but cannot yet release any other information.
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Nov 7, 2010 at 1:04 p.m.
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The defendants will probably take this to court.It will be up to the judge to levy a realistic fine.
Nov 7, 2010 at 1:25 a.m.
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Sigma40, The fines are set by the state or municipality, not the cops. For each underage person the home owners sold alcohol to or allowed to drink, it counts as a separate offense, resulting in a separate fine.
Doing the math, it seems the officers probably DID cut them a break. The earlier article stated the two who threw the party were fined about $6200 apiece. While I don't know the exact fines, the average underage drinking/providing/possession citation runs about $250 (estimate). Doing the division, that works about to about 25 citations apiece. Since there were 130+ people cited, and these two each wound up with only 25 people worth of citations, I'd say the cops cut them a lot of slack.
Nov 6, 2010 at 6:18 p.m.
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I would start a collection to help pay it off. While what they did was wrong, I dont agree with the price gouging cop's fine.
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