METHUEN — Police broke up a party at School Superintendent Judith Scannell's Pleasant Street home early Saturday morning. Open beer bottles were found in the house and on the property, but no arrests were made.
Scannell was in New York when her daughter, Terrena, 18, a college student home for the weekend, decided to have a "few friends over" on Friday night, according to a police report.
But other uninvited people showed up at the 75 Pleasant St. house across from the Tenney Elementary School, and brought liquor with them, according to the report.
Terrena Scannell told police the majority of the uninvited guests were hanging out in the backyard "and she had asked them to leave but they were still hanging around until the police showed up."
Police found beer bottles and cups on a picnic table in the backyard and in the kitchen.
Police yesterday said the incident was handled properly and neither Scannell nor her daughter were given preferential treatment by investigating officers. No one was arrested at the party because no one was found to be directly in possession of alcohol, police Capt. Randy Haggar said.
Scannell and her daughter "were treated like any other family in town would have been," Haggar said.
"The investigation of the sergeant and the officers on scene determined no arrests at this incident were warranted. There were individuals there that were unwelcome and the sergeant on scene took appropriate action ... The response was proper and ensured every individual there was safe," he said.
"We don't give individuals preferential treatment because of their positions but on the other hand we are not going to persecute someone for who they are either," Haggar added.
Police were dispatched to Scannell's home at 1:10 a.m. to investigate a report of "kids running through adjacent yards," according to a report by officer Herb Stacy.
Arriving officers saw "quite a few people" leaving Scannell's house. Some were crossing Pleasant Street to the Tenney School parking lot, where cars were parked, according to the report.
Stacy said he and other officers waited in the foyer of the home "and told the kids to call their parents and have them pick them up at the residence, which they started to do," Stacy wrote.
One person, Michael Dion, 18, of 44 Gaston St., was handcuffed and placed into protective custody with police. Dion was taken to the police station, where he was released shortly afterwards to the custody of his father, according to the police report.
Once the house was cleared, Stacy said he spoke with Terrena Scannell again and told her "she could be charged for what occurred at the residence" and that he was going to call her parents.
"She stated that she understood and she once again explained that she did not know why other people had showed up and she did what she could to get them to leave," Stacy wrote.
Stacy spoke with Judith Scannell at 3 a.m. Saturday and told her what happened. Scannell was "not too happy with her daughter" and very concerned the kids who had been at her home were safe.
"I explained to her the severity of a situation like this and she conveyed to me that she completely understood and was going to deal with the situation when she returned home on Sunday," Stacy wrote.
Scannell declined comment for this story.
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