Charles Smith and John Perrone, the duo arrested in Harbin last fall for the manufacture of the illegal hallucinogenic drug DMT in Smith’s room, were sentenced Friday to three years of probation and 200 hours each of community service.

Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly initially gave Smith and Perrone six months in jail, but suspended the sentence in favor of three years probation, in accordance with the suggestions of both the prosecution and defense attorneys.

According to authorities, the two made about a gram of DMT before being discovered, and Harbin Hall was evacuated due to the feared explosive nature of the ingredients.

Smith, formerly a Georgetown freshman, told the court that his actions were “regrettable and wrong” and promised not to break the law again. The judge also reprimanded Smith for his regular use of marijuana and told him he needed to concentrate on addressing that problem.

In federal court yesterday, Charles Smith and John Perrone plead guilty to manufacturing DMT in Smith’s Harbin dorm room last October.

Perrone admitted during the hearing that he purchased the supplies needed to make the hallucinogenic drug, while Smith agreed to pay half of the cost. Although they didn’t plan to sell the drug, they did plan to share it with friends. Before their arrest on the morning of Oct. 25, they produced a gram of DMT — about 10 hits worth.

“I have never consumed DMT in my life, didn’t get that far,” Perrone said during the hearing, according to the AP.

Lawyers agreed that Smith and Perrone should be sentenced to six months in jail. Instead of serving that jail time, as per the agreement, the two men will do community service and go on probation. The two men will be sentenced on Mar. 18.

According to University spokesperson Julie Green Bataille, Smith is no longer enrolled at Georgetown. He was previously enrolled as a freshman in the School of Foreign Service.

Photo: Arthur Lien, h/t AP

In the last few days new charges were formally filed against Charles Smith (SFS ’14) and John Perrone regarding their involvement in the operation of the DMT lab found in Harbin last October.

According to the filing documents, Smith and Perrone “did unlawfully, knowingly, and intentionally manufacture a mixture and substance containing a detectable amount of dimethyltryptamine, also known as DMT.”

Both Smith and Perrone, a freshman at the University of Richmond at the time of his arrest, are charged with one federal count and one D.C. count for unlawfully manufacturing a controlled substance.

Court documents indicate that the case has been resolved by a plea agreement.

“Counsel for the defendants and the government have reached an agreement that will resolve the matter by a pre-indictment plea,” according to a motion filed by the defense attorney.

Prior to the agreement the case was set to go to trial beginning today. As of now no court date has been set for the pleadings.

Photo: Arthur Lien

The failure of Harbin Hall’s audible fire alarm system was caused by “inadvertent human error,” according to Chief Administrative Officer Spiros Dimolitsas.

“A technician failed to properly reset the system after conducting a monthly test of a fire pump on Friday, October 22,” he wrote in a memo addressed to the University community. “The system was working on Wednesday, October 20, during our regularly scheduled evacuation drill and again on Thursday, October 21 when a smoke alarm triggered an evacuation.”

The evacuation, which began after Public Safety officers discovered students producing DMT in the dormitory’s ninth-floor, was described as “chaos everywhere” by Ted Helfrich (MSB ’14), an eighth-floor resident.

“They tried to pull the fire alarms, but they weren’t going off,” he said.

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Looking to go out tonight but not sure what to wear? Use up all your good costumes already?

The Washington Post has a few suggestions for college-themed costumes, including “Can of Four Loko,” “Mark Zuckerberg,” and of course, the Georgetown-themed “Alleged Georgetown DMT Lab Scientists.” From the Post‘s college blog, Campus Overload:

Throw on a Georgetown sweatshirt and maybe a white lab coat, drink your beverages out of a mason jar but do not actually try to create DMT yourself—it’s a crime.

P.S. Don’t forget to submit your favorite costume from this weekend to Vox‘s Halloween costume contest!

h/t Funny or Die

At D.C. District Court this afternoon, Charles Smith (SFS ’14) and John Perrone, a freshman at the University of Richmond, were released under parental custody to their homes in Andover, Massachusetts.

Smith and Perrone will stand trial in court on January 24 for conspiracy to manufacture and possession with intent to distribute DMT, a hallucinogenic drug.

According to Washington City Paper, who spoke with the attorneys defending Smith and Perrone before the hearing, both college students are “very young kids from good families who’ve done some good things.”

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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.

The report contradicts statements made by Todd Olson, vice president of student affairs, who claimed in multiple emails that “a strange odor on the ninth floor” led DPS officers to Smith and Romano’s dorm room.

The Post spoke with an anonymous law enforcement official who claimed that Public Safety officers observed a student outside of Harbin Hall smoking what appeared to be marijuana. The student, however, told the DPS officer that he was smoking K2, a legal marijuana alternative made of crushed, chemical-sprayed leaves.

After being asked where he got the drug, the student then led to officer to Harbin room 926.

The law enforcement official who spoke with the Post added that a search of the dorm room found “five small pill capsules containing suspected DMT.” An additional search of Perrone’s car turned up “several empty capsules with traces of suspected DMT.”

According to a Metropolitan Police Department incident report, which collaborates the anonymous official’s account, officials also discovered “a green plant substance, a carbon dioxide cannister, homemade smoking devices, a grinder, a jar containing a red liquid substance, and a styrofoam cooler with dry ice and several jars containing a clear liquid substance,” as well as “a suitcase that has a strong chemical odor and contained ammonia, salt, lighter fluid, rubber gloves, and a turkey baster” in the dorm room.

Photo: Max Blodgett

Tuesday, 6:45 p.m. update: According to an email sent to students by the University Housing Department, Facilities Management will test each residence hall’s fire alarm system this week.

Between 10 a.m. and 11 a.m. tomorrow, Darnall and New South will be tested; LXR, Nevils, and the Southwest Quad will be tested later that day between 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. On Thursday, Copley, Henle, Village A, and Alumni Square will be tested between 10 a.m. and 11 a.m.; Village C will be tested on Thursday between 1 p.m. and 3 p.m.

Original post: In an email sent to the Georgetown community shortly after 11 p.m., Todd Olson, vice president of student affairs, and Rocco DelMonaco, vice president of university safety, provided yet another update about the Saturday’s Harbin Hall evacuation and DMT arrests.

Despite the failure of the “audible portion” of Harbin’s fire alarm system, the email reads, the redundancies built into the system allowed the University to evacuate the building quickly. In response to the malfunctioning system, the University will test “all on-campus residence locations” later this week.

“We purposefully build redundant means of effecting evacuations into our emergency plans in order to address life safety issues in multiple ways,” Olson and DelMonaco wrote. “Our actions on Saturday—including triggering the fire evacuation system and having multiple staff and law enforcement personnel make personal visits to individual residences, are examples of these redundancies.”

According to the email, the production of DMT is “an isolated event” that is “not something we have experienced before on our campus.”

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In a meeting with campus media this evening, Todd Olson, university vice president of student affairs, and Julie Green Batialle, university spokesperson, revealed more details surrounding the DMT arrests in Harbin Hall last Saturday.

“The fact is it was a day that was confusing in many ways,” Olson said.

Olson and Bataille would not comment on any impending disciplinary actions against John Romano (COL ’14) and Charles Smith (SFS ’14), the residents of the ninth-floor Harbin Hall dorm room where Public Safety officers discovered a so-called “DMT lab” early Saturday morning.

At an arraignment hearing at the D.C. District Court this afternoon, Romano was released and relieved of all charges against him. Smith and John Perrone, a freshman at the University of Richmond, will be charged with “conspiracy to manufacture” and “possession with intent to distribute” and will be held without bail until at least Wednesday.

“The students are not on campus at this time,” Olson said. “We take matters like this very seriously.”

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