why is romano released and the others not? he is just as involved, is his lawyer just better? it does not seem fair that the visitor get more punishment than the kid whose room the drugs were in..this is ridiculous

Oh so you were there right? You probably know better than the people who interviewed him. Clearly he wasn’t as involved…therefore they are releasing him…

So this would be the first time anybody lied in an interview? Right?

Wait for the news to come out about it before you decide who is innocent and who is not.

@ what the fuck:
unless you were one of the investigating officers, you probably don’t know the whole story. maybe the other kids absolved him of any wrongdoing?

obviously i’m not saying i was involved with any of this, i’m just saying…Perrone is a visitor from another college and it woudl only make sense for him to face the least amount of charges. what are the likely consequences for Charles Smith and Perrone? I think that with a good lawyer, they could be relased with little to no jail time possibly, but definitely expelled

Whoever just said the comment above mine– You should be ashamed at your lack of intelligence. The chances are that the kid from Richmond brought the chem set. John probably went to bed without knowing what was going on and his roommate and this kid starting messing around. You DON’T KNOW THE FACTS. Learn some compassion and humility. And reason, also. People like you make this a disgusting place to go to school.

Guilty until proven innocent!

@ what the fuck
you can’t assume these kids are perfect people.plus, georgetown is a place for intellectuals not druggies. im not trying to be biased here, but we can’t say they are guilty until they are proven so. lets just wait and see

kid probably agreed to testify against the other two to get out haha. Prisoners dilemma babyyyyyy

Wow, all I’m seeing here is a lot of hate from a lot of people. Even the people preaching compassion. Whats wrong with NOT predicting what happened or why it has happened, and just waiting to find out? Maybe then fewer people would appear to be stupid or ignorant. Will we end up with the whole, unbiased truth? Probably not…but it’ll be better than the stuff most commentators spit out.

Chill out people. If Romano is being released it apparently means the justice system has decided he is indeed less involved. This case clearly isn’t being treated lightly, as the other two are being held without bail. No need to get pissed that he isn’t getting the book thrown at him.

At what point, and on whose authority, was the decision made to involve outside authorities? Georgetown has not formerly been in the business of crushing the future aspirations of its students, even when tragedy occurs. For example, in David Shick’s case, the university deliberately kept the investigation within DPS and Student Affairs, assigned the student found responsible for David Shick’s death a 10-page reflection paper, and refused to discuss the matter with Shick’s parents unless they signed a confidentiality agreement.

If some DPS officer decided to contact MPD on his own, he deprived the University of the ability to make a proper decision about maintaining jurisdiction over the matter. If the University President decided this one at 6am, then shame on him for such a rush to judgment and not even waiting until more facts could be collected. Shame on Georgetown for not following Fr. O’Donovan’s lead, and charitably sparing the future of boys who acted with malice towards none.

I also question the managerial competence of those who gratuitously chose to make a giant public relations embarrassment for Georgetown national news.

^ This. This has nothing to do with who’s lawyer is better. It’s too early for the lawyers to be make any major arguments. For whatever reason, they’ve determined Perrone will not face charges. Calling for him to face charges regardless is ridiculous.

Agree, whoa. For all we know, Charlie Smith and John Perrone explicitly stated that John Romano was in no way involved and ought to be released, and so he is. Just because Perrone was a guest doesn’t mean he was just as involved, if not more so, than one or both of the roommates. We could plot a thousand story lines with this one, but the justice system is all that matters, and for whatever reason, Romano wasn’t involved. All I can say is, thank goodness it’s been reduced from 3 kids who’s lives are potentially ruined to 2… any number is bad enough, we should be thankful for the one who is getting another chance.

Charles Smith not bailable is an outrage. The bill of rights specifically protects the right to bail. Smith’s ability to assist in his own defense is unreasonably burdened by keeping him in jail.

I’m so relieved to hear that Romano was released. John is an incredibly intelligent kid and it was pretty devastating to think that he may have been involved. I’m not sure what the state of John’s Georgetown future is but I’m happy to hear that he is an innocent, free man.

“The bill of rights specifically protects the right to bail.”

And this nation’s jurisprudence also does not say that it is absolute.

Ever open a law textbook?

@Izzo
I hate to pull a Christine O’Donnell here, but there is no “right to bail” in the Bill of Rights. Excessive bail is prohibited, but beyond that, it says nothing.

I’m so thankful that John was released and that the justice system enforced the truth. He’s a brilliant kid and very talented musician and it wouldn’t have made sense that he was involved. My prayers go out to John, Joe and the Romano family.

@ Izzo H.O.Y.A. says:
I must respectfully disagree with the argument that Georgetown should have not involved outside authorities. I cannot comment at all on the Shick case [I'm just a sophomore], but in this instance I think DPS did the proper thing. If you are a DPS officer and you walk into a room where you have a reasonable suspicion that there may be highly toxic chemicals present, I think that the only correct response is to obtain outside expertise as quickly as possible. Given the rarity of drug labs on campus, I am not at all surprised or bothered by the fact that DPS officers are not trained in investigating narcotics operations. And, of course, once DC and federal authorities are involved, Georgetown has no control over what actions the criminal justice system takes.

@Christine O’Donnell, oh boy, gc83 – The Bill of Rights specifically protects the right to freedom of speech, for realz. U.S. Const. Amend. I. Yet, this right is not absolute; there are cases in which speech may be regulated. Also, he bill of rights specifically protects the right to bail, yo. U.S. Const. Amend VIII.

why is there no bail for charlie and john? that’s ridiculous they aren’t murderers, there should be at least some amount of bail

@student2

From Wikipedia:
18 U.S.C. § 3142(f) provides that only persons who fit into certain categories are subject to detention without bail: [...] certain drug offenses for which the maximum offense is greater than 10 years.

According to § 801. Congressional findings and declarations: controlled substances, those “offenses” include the manufacture of drugs.

So… yeah, they can be denied bail for that.

@Eric – I doubt that there was such an exigent and immediate emergency that it would be impossible to contact the University President at home first. If I were Jack DeGioia, I would be livid. I wouldn’t be able to fire the DPS officer right away without making the P.R. nightmare this moron started even worse, so I would make sure he got assigned to cleaning up freshmen puke on Friday nights. Then I would fire him after his wife got pregnant. I didn’t hire him to conduct investigations or to think. I hired him to follow herds of freshmen to douchetastic parties in Henle and bust said parties. Why? So that I could cover my ass about the so-called “alcohol and drug problem.” And instead, some assmonkey has exposed my ass to all kinds of unwanted attention. This makes me so fucking mad I could really go for a hit right now, but no, assmonkey probably turned over all the evidence to MPD already.

@ Izzo H.O.Y.A. says:

Again, I must disagree. While you are correct that in the end there turned out not to be “such an exigent and immediate emergency”, my point is that no DPS officer, or anyone else for that matter, could know one way or the other until AFTER an investigation had been completed by trained investigators. Hindsight in always 20/20, but people in law enforcement must make rapid decisions with limited information. I imagine that you, along with everyone else, would be upset if it turned out that DPS had responded, tried to deal with this internally, and then an explosion or something occurred becuase DPS misjudged the amount of chemicals involved. Unlikely? Yes, but possible nonetheless. Law enforcement and college administrators get paid to think about worst case scenarios. I don’t like the national news coverage as much as the next person, but the priority has to be on keeping students as safe as possible. Just think, if Georgetown had tried to keep this secret, it would, rightly or wrongly, look like a cover-up for PR reasons. And that would mean even worse PR!

The statement of facts also indicates that defendant Charles Smith admitted to law enforcement that it was a “DMT Lab.” Outrageous! Either the police are lying, or detained Georgetown students are willing to say things to police besides “I want a lawyer.” Freshmen should not be running drug labs without proper legal advice.

http://cdn0.knowyourmeme.com/i/000/078/075/original/He_mad.jpg?1287362986

@Eric – I agree that some balancing needs to be made, and the matter should have been thought over. Decisions that are a BIG FUCKING DEAL should wait an extra few minutes for the proper authorities — OUR authorities, not D.C. Metro Police — to be consulted first. It’s not plausible that there was a substantial risk of Harbin Hall spontaneously combusting in the next few minutes. And if there was, wtf was going on that it took until the arrival of MPD to order the building evacuation? DPS didn’t.

@ Izzo H.O.Y.A. says:
You make a fair point about the immediacy of the emergency. Maybe there was no reason to think that there would be a catastrophe imminently. But, I think my point still holds: MPD and DC Fire and Rescue officials were able to bring to bear expertise that DPS could not and make as informed a decision as possible about how to procede. Let me ask you the question this way: Suppose DPS had contacted top university administrators before calling MPD. If you were an administrator, what would you have actually done? Said, “I’ll run right over and look at the chemicals myself,” how about “Put some gloves on and take the stuff out of Harbin before anyone notices,” maybe “Let’s convene a committee to study the potential PR outfall”? I cannot help but think that any of these answers would have been irresponsible if not very dangerous.

I’m guessing no bail because he’s a flight risk? Isn’t the Charles Smith kid from London?

why would he be from london? theres no info on any of them that i can find

Why would he be from London? Some of the people who read the GEORGETOWN Voice blog may actually go to Georgetown and know something about the students involved! imagine that!

@student2 – Charlie Smith’s facebook page is no longer accessible, so as far as I can tell, he’s not actually from anywhere.

imagine that? guess what, i know charlie smith too. i just mean, HOW DOES THE PRESS KNOW? i thought the lawyers were keeping all info from the media. that would be the best thing. we dont need bad PR right now

Classy, Georgetown.

I wonder how many of you are cooking drugs in your Burleith dorm basements. I’ll take 25% with good odds.

@Bradford Cox/Deerhunter:

please come play a show at Georgetown for John!

@ Izzo,
I am sorry Izzo, but I feel your statements thus far have been ignorant, and completely ridiculous. The University’s “image” is what you seem to be trying to protect, which in this case is absolutely the least important issue at stake. I’m sure that DeGioia himself would agree with me on that one. Also, you assume that the decision to involve DC Metro police was not made with the support of the university, or in line with any of the university’s protocols. As far as I know, the University has not made any statements criticizing DPS for their actions, and furthermore, I think that the DPS officers probably know better than you do in what situations a call to DC Metro is necessary. The fact of the matter is that DPS would have been the first to respond, clearly did not know how to handle the situation and only then called DPS.

ADDITIONALLY, you have thus far failed to acknowledge the level of risk that was actually present when the lab was discovered. There was no way to determine what was going on in that room until after an investigation had been conducted, but as meth is one of the most frequently home-manufactured drugs, it is not by any means ridiculous to assume what was going on was meth production, and it was for the safety of all of the students in the dorm that drastic measures were taken immediately (I do not know how much you know about meth labs, but if, indeed there had been meth production going on in that room, the possibility of an immediate explosion would have been a real and present danger).

One last thing, I highly doubt the police are lying about smith admitting it was a DMT Lab. If the kid was dumb enough to plan a drug manufacturing enterprise in his college dorm room, he would likely not be bright enough to invoke his right of attorney and keep his mouth shut. “Anything you say can and will be used against you.” The police don’t have any incentive to keep him quiet, if he said it, they have a right to repeat it.

At least 3 people who have posted comments on this story so far deserve to be arrested and held without bail. “Izzo HOYA,” “what the fuck,” and of course “Proud Burleither” (who is consistently the biggest douchebag on here) have manufactured large quantities of dangerous stupidity and have exhibited the clear intent to distribute it. Someone please call MPD.

the act is getting old, buddy. wasn’t it one of you who just got arrested for growing/ selling/ distributing? what a hypocrite.

Thank you Chris for the updates of new information throughout the day.

@Concerned Student – “Nuts!” – The American Commander. lolz really. First, the most important issue is that Charlie Smith is the victim of a human tragedy that remains undiminished by his own culpability. The humiliation he and his family have already endured, and the cruel legal saga that is only beginning to unfold are horrible things. I may have mentioned these ideas in part earlier, but I haven’t spilled too much ink on them just because they should be obvious to all of us, save perhaps those so morally obtuse that they would cheer on giving Antigone all the punishment the law would mete out to her.

NEXT, Of course the university hasn’t issued a statement criticizing DPS. I didn’t suggest they do this. I suggested that the DPS Officer be fired at a later time, such as when his wife gets pregnant. If DeGioia did authorize this, then I condemn the hell out of him. Hoyas don’t narc out Hoyas.

$1300… this is not going to end well.

As to why the Richmond student is being held, considering they apparently found shit in his car, I’d guess that there’s pretty good evidence that he wasn’t “just a visitor.”

Oh, and sorry to spam, but “Hoyas don’t narc out Hoyas”? WTF? We’re expected to look the other way when people commit crimes just because we went to the same school?

@ Izzo
Get real. Charlie Smith is an idiot who tried to manufacture drugs in his room, and now he is dealing with the consequences. He endangered himself, his hallmates, and broke the law. Not because he was striving for civil rights, not because he was putting himself on the line in an act of civil disobedience, he was manufacturing drugs. Any humiliation he and his family are undergoing is unfortunate, but is a natural and foreseeable result of his actions. Do not make him out to be any kind of martyr.

I maintain the fact that DPS and the University acted properly. Calling Metro wasn’t what crushed Charlie Smith’s dreams and future, it was his own decisions.

@ConcernedStudent

Amen to that!

http://www.spiritofthehilltop.com/

For info on porn girl, Class of 2014. Not to go off topic, but..

[...] « DMT arrest update: John Romano released, others held without bail Oct 25 2010 [...]

http://blog.georgetownvoice.com/2010/10/04/cbs-correspondent-and-burleith-resident-arrested-in-drug-bust/
Open mouth. Insert foot.

@ everybody

Try to stick to the subject of the post.

@ConcernedStudent — I imagine you really do think Antigone had it coming to her, huh? She wasn’t striving for civil rights, either. She wanted to bury her brother, who was a traitor, who allegedly almost blew up Creon Hall with his Greek Fire lab. The humiliation was unfortunate, yadda yadda, but an entirely natural and forseeable result of his actions.

Memo to freshmen: Sophocles comes out differently. A major theme is that family takes care of its own.

@ Izzo,
Family does take care of its own. I have no relation to a jackass who, in his second month at Georgetown, engages in behavior that jeopardizes the safety of his dorm-mates and brings tremendous national embarrassment to the rest of this “family.”

@Tim – That’s cool, but I’m actually talking about Charlie Smith, about whose alleged activities, Olson emailed: “Please know that the DEA has informed us that there was never a health risk to students in Harbin.” And as for national embarrassment, I agree that those who publicized what should have remained private facts should be condemned. Hoya Saxa!

@Izzo Considering the family in question (Oedipus, Jocasta, Antigone, Ismene, Polyneices, and Eteocles) was created by an incestuous marriage between a woman and her natural son, I’m a bit leery to say that their values I’d like my community to share. I’m not sure why you’re bringing up Sophocles, though, unless it’s to try to show off.

*that theirs are the values

Again as has been said before – you can’t condemn the media for distributing info that is a matter of public record. In fact, news organizations (and GU administrators) have an obligation to inform their communities with all the facts that are available. I understand that you are probably friends with Charlie and you are upset that he is getting so much attention, but maybe he should have thought of that before building a drug lab in his dorm room.

@ izzo
buddy, I feel bad that charlie smith’s life is ruined because he made an incredibly dumb mistake, but it is a very entitled notion to think that the Students, Media, and Georgetown administration have any kind of responsibility to cover up what he did for the sake of his future. He is an adult who did something incredibly stupid. It could have happened now, or it could have happened years from now, but I said it once and I’ll repeat myself, he is responsible for the fact that his future has been crushed. It’s not everyone else’s fault, in fact it’s not anyone else’s fault.

Also, I don’t give a shit about Antigone. She was’t building a drug lab in a building full of other people. Her situation literally has no bearing. This isn’t a matter of someone defying a law that is unfair or unjust. Illegal drugs are illegal. No one needs them, no one is entitled to them the way someone is entitled to burying her brother. The consequences he faces now are written plainly in the law. If he had a problem with them he should have thought about the actions he took.

I don’t know if you are defying everyone so vehemently because he was your friend, your relative, your dealer, or whatever. But if you are defending him because you find yourself in a similar, but yet undiscovered situation, you may want to rethink what you are doing because the world will treat you just the way it treated Charlie. Thats just how it works for those of us who are rational. It’s predictable, and because we are all warned that actions have consequences, it also tends to be fair. Cause and effect. Get used to it.

@izzo: Having taught in a maximum prison for men, I’ll tell you what they would have if they’d had the opportunity: Don’t do the crime if you can’t do the time.

Criminal acts INSIDE the gates do not make you less culpable. To some people, being a student here makes you MORE culpable. You’re supposed to be smart, not smart-assed.

[...] The Washington Post is reporting that University Public Safety officers received a drug tip on Saturday morning that led to the arrests of Charlie Smith (SFS ’14), John Perrone, a University of Richmond freshman, and John Romano (COL ’14), who was released by authorities yesterday. [...]

[...] John Romano (COL ’14), and John Perrone, a freshman at the University of Richmond. Romano was released by authorities and was relieved of all charges against him on Monday; Smith and Perrone were charged with [...]

hahaha, i sat next to john in my english class, hahaha didnt know he was gunna make a dmt lab