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

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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The Advisory Neighborhood Commission met on Monday to discuss the usual—license approvals and community noise complaints. As expected, commissioners also mentioned the shenanigans in Harbin Hall, as well as a few local bars and restaurants. Here are the meeting’s highlights:

Neighbors’ complaints stall Third Edition’s liquor license

Commissioners voted to not support renewal of Third Edition’s liquor license on the grounds of neighbors’ complaints and the bar’s multiple ABRA violations. However, Third Edition isn’t going anywhere; Commissioner Bill Starrels assured the audience that the ANC did not want to run the bar out of Georgetown.

“The overarching problem is that they aren’t complying with the previous [voluntary] agreement,” Commission Charles Eason said.

The ANC will revisit the liquor license question after Third Edition’s voluntary agreement is revised to address noise concerns.

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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

View Campus Crime Watch: October 19-26 in a larger map

Drug violations—and the ensuing arrests—took a prominent position in this week’s news coverage. However, theft remains the most prevalent type of crime on campus. Six reported incidents of laptop thefts occurred on campus in the past week, two of which occurred within minutes of one another on Sunday in Lauinger Library. (In total, four laptops were stolen on Sunday.)

While investigating a laptop theft in Village A on Tuesday night, Metropolitan Police Department Sergeant Nick Cook offered students some tongue-in-cheek advice.

“Look out for the guy running around with 17 Macbooks,” he said.

To report an emergency, call the Georgetown Department of Public Safety at (202) 687-4343 or the DC Metropolitan Police Department at 911. To report other suspicious behavior, call the DPS tip-line at (202) 687-2320.

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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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6:45 p.m. update: At her arraignment, Baltazar pled not guilty to charges of unlawful possession of and intent to sell marijuana and the sale of drug paraphernalia. She was released from custody, but the D.C. Superior Court recommended that she undergo drug testing and treatment.

During the arraignment, Baltazar’s attorney, Brian M. Heberlig, added that his client will be meeting with “the head of Georgetown’s student disciplinary board” on Friday.

Baltazar and Heberlig declined to comment on the case after the arraignment adjourned. Her next court hearing is scheduled for November 19 at 9 a.m.

5:00 p.m. update: According to MPD’s incident report, DPS reported to members of the Narcotic and Special Investigations Division that Baltazar was selling marijuana on the Georgetown campus. In addition to  a substance that field-tested positive for THC, MPD also recovered drug paraphernalia in her room.

2:10 p.m. update: Baltazar will be arraigned this afternoon in D.C. Superior Court.

Wednesday, 1:25 p.m. update: According to University spokesperson Julie Green Bataille, Baltazar’s arrest was part of an “ongoing investigation” on the part of University Public Safety and the Metropolitan Police Department.

Last night, MPD and DPS “found reason to suspect drug use” in Baltazar’s second-floor Harbin Hall room, which led to a search of the premises and her arrest. In an email to Vox, Bataille added that the investigation is separate from another ongoing investigation into the arrests of Charles Smith (SFS ’14), 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 conspiracy to manufacture and possession with intent to distribute DMT, a hallucinogenic drug.

“We are working actively with MPD to understand if there are any connections but at this time believe they are unrelated incidents,” Bataille wrote. “We do believe both of these recent incidents are unusual events on our campus and do not represent the vast majority of Georgetown students who contribute positively to our community.”

According to an MPD incident report obtained by the Hoya, MPD officers found “a green weed-like substance that tested positive for THC” in Baltazar’s room.

10:00 p.m. update: Bataille confirmed in an email that Kelly Baltazar, a freshman resident of Harbin Hall room 229, was arrested this evening by MPD and is “now in police custody.”

Original post: This evening shortly before 7:30 p.m., a handcuffed female student was seen being escorted out of Harbin Hall by University Public Safety and Metropolitan Police Department officers. Metropolitan Police Department Officer Hugh Carew said that MPD officers arrested a suspect at 7:16 p.m. at Georgetown University for unauthorized use of a controlled substance.

Later in the evening, Carew told the Hoya that Baltazar was arrested for “possession with the intent to distribute marijuana.”

According to Leigh Finnegan (COL ’13) who overheard a conversation between DPS officers on the ground floor of the dormitory, the student’s room was searched before she was detained. [Editor's note: Finnegan is the Voice's Assistant Leisure Editor.]

Vox will update this post as we learn more.

Additional reporting by Molly Redden.

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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