Maryland AG admits mistake at teenage party
Washington (CNN) - Maryland Attorney General Doug Gansler said Thursday he should have done more to investigate alleged underage drinking at a high school beach party this summer.
Gansler, a Democrat who is running for governor in 2014, admitted that not doing more was a mistake, but said that “regret” might be too strong a term to describe how he was feeling.
“Maybe in this case, I should have done something differently,” Gansler said at a press conference. I “probably should have” tried to “investigate whether there was drinking going on, and then taken action on that.”
Gansler told reporters that he only spent a few minutes at the June 2012 party, where “there may have been some college students or others drinking beer.” Gansler was forced to address the controversy after the Baltimore Sun published a story about his presence at the party, including a photograph of him in the crowd.
He went there, Gansler said, in order to tell his 19-year old son about what time their family would be leaving the beach the next morning.
Gansler’s son was in South Bethany, Delaware, according to the attorney general, for “beach week” – a celebratory week after high school graduation where students rent beach houses.
The attorney general said he stopped by the party after a work dinner but said “there was no sort of drinking in my face.”
“I was there as a parent,” Gansler said, noting that he isn’t Delaware’s chief law enforcement officer. “There were chaperones there. I figured they probably had it under control. To the extent there was anything going on that was bad, I didn’t see any.”
He continued: “Perhaps should I have gone around the house and looked. Or asked the chaperones whether there was any underage drinking going on. You know, we all make those judgments. We make them at the time.”
Gansler said his son was not drinking at the party. At various times throughout the press conference, he tried to distance himself from responsibility.
“I wasn't the chaperon. I didn't buy the beer or anything like that,” he said. “I showed up, talked to my son, and left.”
Advocates against underage substance abuse have criticized Gansler for not doing more to stop the party, telling CNN the fact that he was there solely as a parent doesn’t absolve him from responsibility.
“Every parent has a moral obligation to protect our children, whether it's their children or other children,” Michael Gimbel, former director of Baltimore County’s Office of Substance Abuse told CNN.
“If you walk into a party where there's underage drinking, and wild behavior because of drinking, whether you're a regular parent or whether you’re the attorney general of the state of Maryland, you have an obligation to protect our children, to stop them from hurting themselves.”
Gimbel continued: “I would think he has a responsibility, a moral responsibility, if nothing else. But the fact that he was observing illegal behavior and condoning it, I think was wrong.”
The party, according to the Sun, occurred in a rental home. After the party, according to minutes from a South Bethany Town Council Meeting, “there was about $50,000 worth of damage done to the house.”
Julie Barnes, who cleaned the house after the rental, told the Sun that the damage included “wooden floors rippled from moisture damage, dents that appeared to be made from high heels on the bar and pool table, and floors sticky from what smelled like beer.”
At a town meeting, local police said that damage occurred due to “criminal mischief.” At his press conference, Gansler rejected the idea that the damage came from the party.
“I didn’t stay in the house. I didn’t check out of the house,” Gansler said. “But when the parents that were chaperoning checked out of the house on the Friday morning… the house was totally clean, totally clear, no damage whatsoever. … Later on, that night, there were actually vandals that came into the house apparently and caused an enormous amount of damage.”
As attorney general, Gansler has been an outspoken critic of underage drinking and has filmed public service announcements about the issue.
“Parents, you're the leading influence on your teen's decision not to drink,” Gansler said during an ad for The Century Council, a group that fights against underage drinking. “It's never too early to talk with your kids about smart ways to say no.”
Gansler said on Thursday that filming such ads while not doing more at the beach party was not hypocritical.
Earlier this year, Gansler declared he was running to succeed Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley. The Democrat is considered a strong candidate by most political watchers and has posted strong fundraising numbers so far – with nearly $5.2 million in the bank and over $1 million raised in 2013.
- CNN’s Brian Todd and Dugald McConnell contributed to this report.
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How was it determined that there was criminal activity? The only thing that happened was that damage occurred. Maybe it occured before the party from non-criminal activity. Just because Crime Scene Processing vans visit a site,that does not conclude that a crime occurred there.
The guy is a cop now?
Sorry, non story. Try again.
"Classic Dem political mistake of being a spineless dillhole who caves and apologizes for doing nothing wrong once the GOP/Teatroll ridiculousness is helped along by the MSM.
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Yes, we know. Democrats never do anything wrong. Even when they are caught lying about their misdeeds. Democrats Party, the party of It-Is-Somebody-Elses-Fault."
Dems do things wrong all the time. This time not so much.
MADD is stupid. This situation reminds me of a situation that just happened when a friend went to a party to pick up a friend. She didn't drink but the police showed up while she was there. She was questioned and it was reported that she had not been drinking and didn't smell like alcohol. The girl was replaced as the captain of the volleyball team and suspended. MADD supported that action as a smart zero tolerance policy. I have a zero tolerance for people like this and school employees and administrators who justify bad decisions as conforming with "zero tolerance".
This is a non-story. Some rightwingers are getting their panties in a twist – again.
Say goodbye, Gansler. You're too much the weasel.
these families pump out sociopaths by the droves. and the working class idiots still think their vote matters. stop wasting your time voting. rather, engage in community oriented activities that can lead to forceful action, such as what we saw with the recalls in Colorado. That way no matter who ends up in office, real action can be organized.
Utterly sleazy gutter politics from the GOP. This guy did nothing at all wrong, but the Rovian mindset is "lets say he stood and watched kids get drunk and did nothing about it!" That this is totally untrue doesn't matter to them at all. This is about people putting their party ahead of their nation.
There are more important things going on in the world. There is underage drinking in every single college, including Bible Colleges. And they could stop a lot of it, without a doubt, by checking every bag that students bring in, and doing a pat down. But most Christians at Christian Colleges don't bother doing that.
I find it hypocritical of Republicans who blasted and ridiculed Hillary Clinton when she suggested that everyone needs to be involved in making sure our children are raised well and educated well (in It Takes a Village) are now blasting Gansler for not getting involved when he saw no drinking taking place and wasn't not the chaperone and had no official role at the party.
Because it's real easy to make rules and laws for other people to live by.
Oh noes! Drinking at a party. Seriously people?
I really don't care about this non-story, but you gotta love how all the left-wing types give this guy a pass, yet had this been a republican, they'd be all up in arms about it, with Dominican mama 4 Obama leading the way. As it is, all they're left with is trying to deflect attention away from one of their own who screwed up.
And that's why they're complete hypocrites.
Is this the Right's attempt at putting the gov't shutdown out of people's minds? If I as an adult go to a party to tell my child something, and I don't see anything questionable, I don't start wandering around looking for something I haven't seen. Amazing that this is a headline story but I love laughing at the weirdo right winger comments... I don't know how you say some of the things you do and actually take yourselves seriously... no wonder your party is in shambles... you are a bunch of goofballs! How many girls were raped that night? Seriously? Man, you see a story in the national news and suddenly it's happening at every party AND you blame a guy who stopped by for a minute... WOW!
As much as I dislike Democrats this is a pretty weak attack on one. He showed up to talk to his kid. Maybe he's a bad dad for letting his kid be there, but even that is a stretch. It was chaperoned and nobody was drinking and driving. Maybe if some of those criticizing ever went to parties when they were young they'd be a bit less hysterical. There are probably more important laws this guy isn't enforcing. That's what should be news.
He jumped the shark with the part about the house being totally fine when the parents checked out and then some mysterious evil vandals must have snuck in and done the kind of damage that happens with a wild drunken party.
Not buying it.
"Regret" might be too strong a word? Huh? Probably because he is an irresponsible fool that is not deserving of public office. That response he has made shows he is unfit for the office he had as well as the office he wishes to have.
“Every parent has a moral obligation to protect our children, whether it's their children or other children,”
The correct phrase for what you describe is not "protect." It is "spy on" or "snitch." And, no, don't go around telling other parents how to parent and running to law enforcement if you disagree. These were 18-19 year old adults partying with chaperones, right? They were not even "children."
Morality, poke into other families' business police make me sick. Michael Gimble can shove it.
LOL, have you ever heard so many carefully measured non-answers?
I would love to see a comment from somoene that doesn't have a political bias against Dems that explains what this guy did that was wrong.
Just another politician telling us how we sho
uld live our lives but following his own rules. There "may have been under age drinking". Hahahaha...keep thinking they dont take us for idiots...unreal
Love the sale on lives comment Dominican Mama!! Good one and I agree.
That said, why is this a story and more than that, why is he apologizing? What did he do? He wasn't a chaperone, he stopped in to see his kid, he didn't see any drinking and it's not even his state! This is a really stupid story. Democrat or Republikkkan. And he's not a cop!
Are you guys all Gansler trolls? He's the TOP prosecutor for the State. His office prosecuted parents' who tolerated this behavior as criminals when he was State's Attorney for Montgomery County. He personally helped pay for the house, the parents paid for the booze. He's not a parent here. He IS a law enforcement officer. This is wrong people.
I really don't like Gansler, but have to admit this is a non-story. And for the hyper partisan dems on this page, Tea partiers are pretty much non-existent in Maryland. This story is being pushed by our Democratic Governor, who is trying to get his Lt. Governor elected. Just a little reality check for folks,
Okay, I'll just come out and say it... WHO CARES! When I was that age I occasionally drank alcohol as did most of the people commenting on this story. If I were in his shoes I definitely would not have broken up the party. And before people get going I am not affiliated with any political party. I try to base my decisions off of common sense.