SALISBURY DAILY TIMES
April 2002
Students, police clash in fracas
Three arrests, cop car damage, possible evictions result
from apartment complex party
By Kristen M. Schmidt and Ted Williams, Daily Times Staff Writers
SALISBURY — A late-night party at the University Park apartment complex spun out of control early Sunday morning. When the bottle-throwing and yelling subsided, three people had been arrested, police cars were damaged and some residents faced possible eviction.
About 600 to 2,000 people had gathered at the Salisbury apartments for the event, reportedly attended by representatives of the college party Web site fukitt.com, which accepts invitations from students at East Coast campuses to bar hops and parties.
Salisbury Police Department officers who went to the apartments, off Route 13 near Salisbury State University, called for backup when the crowd became uncontrollable.
Maryland State Police, Wicomico County Sheriff’s deputies and Fruitland Police arrived at the complex at about 12:45 a.m. Sunday. Between 30 and 40 officers helped disperse the crowd.
‘‘It got out of hand,’’ said an SSU junior, who declined to be identified. ‘‘It took one fool to do something wrong.’’ He said the mix of students, police and alcohol fueled the near-riot. ‘‘Everyone was out to have a good time,’’ the student said. ‘‘We weren’t ready for the fun to end. The cops are pretty nice. I believe they did the best thing they could have done.’’
Sheriff’s deputies arrested two Salisbury men, Kevin P. Curran, 20, and Jeffrey Mitchell, 27, on charges of disorderly conduct, disturbing the peace and resisting arrest, police said. Both men were released on personal recognizance after seeing a district court commissioner.
Peter Andrew Morrow, 19, of New Market, Md., was charged by Salisbury police with failure to obey a lawful order, according to Maj. Jeff Livingston. The disposition of Morrow’s case was unknown.
One deputy included what he saw at the party in court documents:
‘‘Subjects began throwing bottles, cans and other objects at the officers. Patrol vehicles were damaged by the items thrown. The crowd was rowdy and extremely uncooperative.’’
police repeatedly ordered partiers to disperse, according to court documents. Officers used at least one K-9 dog and pepper spray to control the crowd, witnesses said.
Monica Eaton, a 20-year-old SSU junior, said she was told by University Park managers Monday she has been evicted and was given a move-out date. ‘‘We did not advertise (the party),’’ she said. ‘‘It was supposed to be exclusive, kept to a few apartments, with just the people we told.’’
Eaton said she spoke to representatives of the Web site Thursday night, when they confirmed they would be in town for a weekend party.
Friends arrived at Eaton’s apartment at about 9 p.m., and by 11 p.m. several apartments in the complex were hopping, she said.
‘‘Yeah, we might have been a little chaotic,’’ she said. ‘‘But we were the first ones to go’’ when police tried to break up the crowd.
University Park managers said the party was an exception to the rule as college parties go, and they praised on-site managers for following company rules.
‘‘This was an unusually large party,’’ said Tom Hickey, a vice president with Allen and O’Hara Education Services. ‘‘The staff reacted accordingly and well, and we’re glad things didn’t get any more out of hand.’’
Allen and O’Hara owns 10 off-campus apartment buildings nationwide. Hickey said the company has been managing such properties for 30 years.
‘‘Our lease agreement provides for penalties, mainly eviction, if certain of the rules and regulations are broken,’’ Hickey said. ‘‘In this case, two people were hit by bottles that were thrown ... . We consider that to be a pretty serious thing.’’
Fukitt.com listed a party sometime in April to ‘‘chill out at Salisbury University and see how they chill.’’ Students can contact the Web site’s representatives and invite them to campus for parties or to bar hop. Photographs of the parties then are posted on the site. Officials at Lynchburg College, Farleigh Dickenson University, Monmouth University and Rutgers University said they were unaware of parties on their campuses hosted by and listed on the site and had no records of problems.
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