Amherst police arrest, ticket dozens for noise, drinking over weekend

STAFF FILE PHOTOWEB ONLY

STAFF FILE PHOTOWEB ONLY STAFF FILE PHOTO

By SCOTT MERZBACH

Staff Writer

Published: 11-07-2024 7:35 PM

AMHERST — Halloween celebrations over the weekend led to numerous large parties, fights and assaults, and both underage drinking and public consumption of alcohol, in areas around the University of Massachusetts campus, according to Amherst police.

One of the largest parties was reported Saturday at 11:45 p.m. on North Pleasant Street, at a home across from Puffton Village Apartments, where people were screaming and yelling and blocking the road, and at least one guest was urinating in the driveway.

With no efforts to quell the noise, even after courtesy phone calls that are made to students who register their parties under the Party Smart system, four men were arrested on charges of violating the town’s nuisance house bylaw, police said. Those could mean $1,200 in potential fines.

Over the course of 311 calls for service, another significant incident took place at 10:49 p.m. Saturday at a North Pleasant Street fraternity party, where three men were taken into custody on charges of violating the town’s noise and nuisance house bylaws. They were determined to be the main organizers, while another 10 men who are members of the fraternity are being summoned to court on the same charges.

A second North Pleasant Street fraternity house had been the scene of a large party at 12:10 a.m. Saturday. There, three residents in charge of the home were issued $300 tickets for violating the town’s nuisance house bylaw. The police response came after Amherst firefighter/paramedics assisted two heavily intoxicated women, including one who was underage. At least one of the women was brought by ambulance to Cooley Dickinson Hospital in Northampton.

After multiple medical calls and liquor law violations and noise complaints at a Phillips Street home, officers issued a $300 ticket to a resident for violating the town’s nuisance house bylaw at 11:08 p.m. Saturday.

Interim Fire Chief Lindsay Stromgren said from 5 p.m. Thursday through 7 a.m. Monday, the department responded to 129 calls, with three-quarters of these calls, or 97 total, being ambulance calls. The department also called for mutual aid ambulances to come to town 15 times during the weekend. The department also assisted with a crew at the brush fire at Fitzgerald Lake in Northampton on both Sunday and Monday.

Fights and assaults

Amherst police also dealt with several incidents of people fighting and being assaulted.

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On Sunday at 12:13 a.m., police responded to a North Pleasant Street fraternity where three women said they had been physically assaulted by two men, one dressed up for Halloween in an orange prisoner jumpsuit and the other playing the part of a referee. Both allegedly struck the women several times as a way to keep them from getting inside the fraternity house. Both men are being summoned to court on three counts of assault and battery, police said.

A possible fight was reported 21 minutes later on Phillips Street. While police found more than 400 people gathered on the street, and one heavily intoxicated woman who was taken by ambulance to Cooley Dickinson, they weren’t able to locate a man allegedly using a golf club to threaten people. The golf club may have been part of the man’s costume.

A 11:35 p.m. Friday, three 18-year-old women, from Springfield, East Longmeadow and Williamstown, were arrested on charges of disorderly conduct after getting into an altercation on Phillips Street, police said.

Another altercation was reported at a downtown bar Friday at 11:46 p.m.. where a woman said she was pushed to the floor by a woman wearing a tiara. Officers determined the shoving had been mutual between the women, and no charges are being filed.

During the police response to parties and other activity on Fearing Street on Saturday at 10:18 p.m., a year-round resident approached police, asking that officers shut down three underground fraternities and do more to keep the peace in the neighborhood. The resident was informed that police were being as proactive as possible to reduce disturbances and curtail behavior impacting tranquility.

Those actions included arresting or summoning to court around 30 people for various alcohol-related violations in the vicinity. Five people were arrested for being minors in possession of alcohol and violating the town’s open container bylaw, while three people were arrested for violating the town’s open container bylaw.

Five people were issued tickets for violating the town’s open container bylaw and being minors in possession of alcohol, five tickets were issued for being minors in possession of alcohol, and four tickets were issued for violating the town’s open container bylaw. Seven warnings were issued for open container and one summons to court for selling or delivering alcohol to minors.

Police also issued a warning to a person urinating in public on Fearing Street.