Lacrosse Players Trashed Teacher’s House
These seven Comstock Park high schoolers wouldn’t be the first teens to make dumb choices under the influence of alcohol. Nor would they be the first to vent their frustrations against a teacher in an immature and poorly-thought-out way. But perhaps courtesy of one judge’s refusal to let them walk away unscathed, this may well be the last time they make choices like these again.
Timothy Hunter Carr, Thaddeus Michael Dudick, Michael Thomas Egeler, Matthew Wayne Hasman, Adam Lee Price, Collin Dedric Riemersma and Nicholas Steven Vanoost are all going to spend seven days in jail. And not just any seven days. The seven days between May 25th through June 1st, which happens to include the boys’ graduation ceremony for Comstock High School. A ceremony that they will now be missing. And all because they made a very foolish choice.
On December 18th the seven boys broke into the home of Barbara and Jon Wier, a married couple who both taught at Comstock High School. Fueled by alcohol, the boys tore the house apart. Over the course of the night they came and went from the premises, continuing to drink more and do further damage. They also apparently went into the Wier’s teenaged daughter’s room and went through her personal belongings.
When the Wier family returned to their home the following day they found it broken into, and destroyed. Later estimates showed the damaged totalled about $3,000.00. They talked to a few of the boys involved, one of whom lives right next door, asking about what had happened. All of the boys denied involvement, and so the Wier’s contacted the police.
The subsequent investigation proved that the seven boys had all been involved in the break in and the destruction that followed. They were all arrested and chose to plead guilty to charges of illegal entry, which is a misdemeanor in Michigan.
In court it was made public that all of the boys except one had prior misdemeanor convictions for marijuana. They had all been given diversionary sentences, which means that the conviction would have stayed off their records had they stayed out of any more trouble with the law.
But Judge Sara Smolenski was not having it. She expressed her displeasure at the boys’ apparent disregard for the consequences of their actions, and revoked their diversionary status. Each teen was ordered to pay $899 in restitution and court fees, along with serving 15 days of community service. They will also lose their driver’s licenses for a period of six months.
The seven boys each offered their apologies to the Weis family, their parents, and the community as a whole. These Comstock High School students claimed to have been raised better than their actions displayed, and promised to never end up back in front of the judge again.