DA BLASTS WOMAN WHO DIDN'T COOPERATE

District Attorney Paul Bucher Wednesday blasted an Elm Grove woman's actions
as "immoral" and "unethical" but announced he will not charge her for
failing to cooperate with police.

However, Bucher said he planned to personally review Elm Grove police
reports today on an incident during which about 20 teens may have avoided
arrest by locking themselves in a Highwood Drive home for three hours until
police left.

The woman, Lynn Paulsen, allowed teenagers to hide in her home during a
possible underage drinking party Saturday, police said.

"That's not illegal," Bucher said Wednesday. "It's immoral. It's unethical.
It's wrong. But it's not illegal.

"Was she setting a poor example? Absolutely," Bucher added. "But we can't
prosecute people for setting a poor example."

The case infuriated police, whose efforts to check on a possible disorderly
party proved futile, and frustrated some parents called there by officers
whose pleas for their children to leave went unheeded.

Even more puzzling for officials was that Paulsen, who lives at the home,
remained inside during the ordeal, refusing to answer the door or police
telephone calls, Bucher said.

Teens holing up in homes to avoid tickets for underage drinking is "nothing
new," Bucher said Wednesday. "It happens all the time. But we don't have an
adult come home in the middle of a standoff and then do nothing (to
cooperate with police). That's a first for us."

Paulsen declined to discuss the matter in an earlier interview and did not
return a reporter's phone call Wednesday. Paulsen is the ex-wife of Elm
Grove Municipal Judge Roger Paulsen, who no longer lives at the home.

Bucher said he would review the police reports to see if he could bring
charges for allowing underage drinking on the premises. The person who
supplied alcohol could be prosecuted for procuring intoxicants for minors,
he added.

Underage drinking violations -- even by adults who give minors alcohol and
allow underage drinking in their homes -- are punishable only by forfeitures
of a few hundred dollars and not by jail time, Bucher said.

Parents may not be charged with contributing to the delinquency of a minor
for underage drinking violations because the underlying conduct is not
criminal. Underage drinking is not a crime but a civil forfeiture offense,
Bucher noted.

Outside the home, police found bottles of liquor in the back seat of a
vehicle with four juvenile occupants.

Those teens, all of whom received $160 tickets for underage drinking, denied
owning the liquor. They told police they had been drinking elsewhere and had
just arrived at the party.

Bucher said police do not know how the teens obtained the liquor.

According to police reports:

An Elm Grove officer arrived at the Paulsen home about 11:20 p.m. Saturday
after hearing the sound of firecrackers. As she arrived, about 20 teenagers
fled from the front lawn, pulling down a garage door and running inside the
house.

The teens turned off lights and refused to allow police to enter even after
several parents called by police arrived to pick up their children.

Officers said that during the confrontation Paulsen arrived home after
walking a dog. She walked up to her front door without talking to police who
were in the process of giving tickets to the four teens.

A mother of one of the girls receiving a ticket, who agreed to be
interviewed only on the condition her name not be used, said Wednesday she
supported the action the police took against her child for drinking.

"Even as a teenager, when you make those decisions in life there are
consequences for your decision," she said.

She said her daughter had never before received a ticket. "They need to
learn that," she said. "They need to learn mom and dad are going to be there
to support you -- but I'm not going to cover up for it. I'm going to make
her go to court, and she's going to follow this thing through. It's a
learning experience, and it was a dumb thing to do."

Police said Wednesday they had no legal grounds, such as proof of immediate
danger or evidence of a crime being committed, to enter the home without
consent.

The suspicion that there was drinking going on inside the home came to
police from parents who police called to the scene.

At least two parents spoke with their children inside the home by telephone
and said there was drinking going on and that party participants were under
pressure not to leave, police have said. In general, authorities may enter a
home only with consent or a warrant. In this case, police said, the matter
did not rise to the level of obtaining a warrant.

Bucher said in an interview Wednesday he was intrigued by a program offered
by the West Allis Police Department in which police get permission to enter
a home while parents are gone or at work. Dubbed the "Concerned Parents
Alcohol and Drug Prevention Program," parents sign a form and provide keys,
allowing police to enter their house if they suspect illegal activity such
as underage drinking or drug use, according to West Allis Police Capt. Dick
Jansen.

Meanwhile, in a similar case, Bucher confirmed that he is reviewing a City
of Pewaukee incident in which police said a 23-year-old man served minors at
a party May 8.

About 100 people allegedly attended the event while the host's parents were
in Las Vegas, and witnesses told police at least 20 participants were
underage.

Pewaukee Lt. Gary Bach said his department had faced the same difficulties
as officers in Elm Grove when they arrived at the home in the N2300 block of
Deerhaven Drive and were refused entry as several people fled into nearby
woods.

Only after officers caught two 19-year-old girls in the woods and arrested
them for underage drinking were they able to obtain statements against the
party's host, who was arrested several days later.