Harvard Medical School Profs Arrested For Serving Alcohol to Minors

Harvard Medical School faculty members J. Wesley Boyd and Theonia K. Boyd were arrested Sunday night for allegedly serving alcohol to minors at their daughter’s graduation party in Weare, N.H.

Police officers busted the party—at which dozens of teenagers appeared to be intoxicated—around 11:00 p.m. in response to several noise complaints, Weare police lieutenant Jim Carney told NECN. The officers took more than 70 minors into custody and towed 30 cars, several of which were stocked with beer.

"There were cases and cases and bottle of alcohol strewn all over the place," Carney said.

But Mr. Boyd, an assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at the Medical School, said that he and his wife had informed his daughter and her fellow classmates at the St. Paul's School in Concord, N.H. that alcohol and drugs would not be permitted at the event, ABC News reported.

Mr. Boyd added that he and his wife—an associate professor of pathology at the Medical School—did not witness any of the students' consumption of alcohol at the party, which was hosted at the home of a family friend.

"Our mistake was saying 'yes' to the party in general," Mr. Boyd said. "We made it clear from the moment our daughter approached us about hosting a party, that no drugs or alcohol would be permitted."

Though Mr. Boyd said that "there's nothing necessarily we would have done differently," he added that a possible error would be the size of the party.

"I would keep it smaller or have five times as many chaperones—and in a confined place," he said.

The Boyds were released on a $500 bail and must appear in court at a later date.

—Staff writer Tara M. Merrigan can be reached at tmerrigan@college.harvard.edu.