Following a crash involving several teens in August, a convenience store clerk and four teens have been criminally charged.
On the evening of Saturday, August 20, North Carolina State Highway Patrol (SHP) responded to a single-vehicle crash involving three teenagers in Caswell County. The 18-year-old driver left the roadway and struck a tree. SHP contacted ALE after open containers of alcohol were located inside the vehicle the night of the crash.
Through the course of the ALE investigation, special agents determined the underage occupants were leaving a house in Providence. The investigation also revealed two of the underage occupants purchased alcoholic beverages from an ABC-licensed business in Virginia, the Sunrise 2, located at 937 South Main Street in Danville. ALE worked jointly with Virginia ABC Authority and identified the clerk, Joseph Mease, 42, of Danville, sold alcoholic beverages to the underage occupants. Mease was charged with aid and abet a person possessing alcoholic beverages under 21 years old.
Jalin Jennings, 18, of Providence, NC, was criminally charged with contributing to the delinquency of a minor, possession of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia.
Heather Collins, 18, and Kameron Scott, 19, both of Danville, VA were charged with possession of alcoholic beverages by a person under 21 years old.
A 16-year-old was criminally charged with aid and abet an underage person.
The investigation into Sunrise 2 is ongoing with Virginia ABC Authority.
Further criminal charges are forthcoming.
Over the past two years, ALE has conducted 173 similar investigations following incidents in which underage alcohol use was a contributing factor. These “source investigations” seek to identify how alcoholic beverages were obtained by the underage person. Sixty-one of these cases resulted in criminal charges. Many of these cases involved motor vehicle collisions, some resulting in serious injury or death.