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Tradition ends in arrest, court dates

Cross Country captain’s arrest at team cocktail party may show that the Grinnell police are cracking down on off-campus parties

by Jose Segebre-Salazar

The women’s cross country team had been at 1014 High Street for over an hour, drinking mixed drinks, telling secrets and “doing lots of girlie things,” according to house resident and team captain Cori McKenzie ’06.

The party, following the Les Duke invitational, is a yearly tradition, as was the men’s arrival. The men’s team arrived at 10:00 p.m. from the $lum, their traditional off-campus residence.

About ten minutes later, the first police officer arrived.

Within another half hour, the Grinnell Police Department had arrested McKenzie under the charge of “disorderly conduct.” She was taken to the police station, photographed, fingerprinted and released. She will plead not guilty through her lawyer at an upcoming court date.

According to the Grinnell Police Department, there has been no recent increase in arrests. Detective Jeffrey A. Hughes said the number of arrests varies from week to week. “If you have a large party on High Street it is real common,” he said.

Shortly before 10:00 p.m. a resident of High Street complained about a group of 12 males who were “being very loud and yelling,” according to the police report filed that night. The commander of the shift, Officer Theresa Peterson, gave an official warning to someone at the party, though not McKenzie.

McKenzie, who had been out on a walk when Officer Peterson first arrived, returned and was told of the warning.

“I thought, ‘it doesn’t seem very loud now’,” she said, “so I thought that everyone must have known that the cops were here and had quieted down.”

Half an hour later there was another complaint, saying that the same individuals were allegedly fighting verbally.

The police arrived a second time. They were unable to late the person they had previously warned.

McKenzie was arrested because her name is on the title lease of the house where the party took place.

Several Grinnellians have expressed a sense of outrage at McKenzie’s arrest. “Cori should not have been arrested,” said fellow cross country runner Caitlin Monaghan ’09. “I don’t think she did anything wrong. I think we were relatively quiet.”

Many students believe that the Grinnell Police Department is becoming more stringent in its interactions with partying students. In the past, there have been instances when houses on High Street received three or more warnings before a party was broken up. Often no arrests took place.

McKenzie’s arrest followed only the second warning for the house, and the first for McKenzie.

When the Police Department was confronted about the warning’s issue, they said, “we had previous complaints before the individual was charged.”

They also said that it is their responsibility to take a stance on noise disturbances, underage drinking and civil misdemeanors.

According to Hughes, the maximum sentence for a misdemeanor of this nature is a year imprisonment. But, he said that typically, if the offender is found guilty he or she will end up paying “a couple hundred dollars” fine.

For McKenzie, the larger issue is that a conviction goes on her permanent record. “I’ve never been arrested before,” she said. “I’m a pretty stand-up person, I think.”

—additional reporting by David Montgomery

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