Guns, alcohol and white lies: Inside the ‘monthly’ parties that a Florida school principal allegedly held for teens
The children were all seen in ‘white lie party’ attire, according to police
When Florida police responded to noise complaints at a Cocoa Beach home, they discovered a few of the usual suspects behind such complaints — marijuana, alcohol — and 100 unusual ones: children.
Elizabeth Hill-Brodigan, the 47-year-old principal of Roosevelt Elementary School, and Karly Anderson, a third-grade teacher at the school, were both arrested in the wake of a massive party, police said. However, the teens in attendance said it wasn’t the first such event.
“Parties like this happen once or twice a month,” students told police.
The teens arrived at the principal’s house at 7.45 p.m. on January 19 “to help make preparations for the party,” an arrest affidavit obtained by The Independent says. When they arrived, alcohol was already available in multiple red-and-white coolers inside the home.
An hour later, police responded to numerous complaints of noise, alcohol and drug use in Cocoa Beach, Florida. When they arrived, they noticed cars stretched down the driveway, spilling into the middle of the road. Teens were consuming alcohol and marijuana.
As they began to clear out the scene, officers conducting traffic stops saw multiple kids inside the cars wearing “matching t-shirts.” They were all coming from the “white lie party,” the affidavit says. That is a trend where attendees where white T-shirts to an event with a minor lie on them.
At around 9:20 p.m., an officer called Elizabeth Hill-Brodigan, the owner of the home and principal, to inform her that minors were drinking alcohol and using marijuana at her home. She told the officer she was down the street and would take care of it, according to an affidavit.
But she apparently didn’t and neighbors continued to complain about the open house party and about how kids were walking through their yards and yelling obscenities at them, authorities said.
Police returned around 9:30 to find an “active party” happening at the home, officers wrote. Hill-Brodigan approached an officer and assured she was shutting down the event.
But it didn’t end. Even while police were at the scene of the house party, they received another call around 10:30 p.m. This call seemed to be from a child, police said.
“The unknown juvenile male advised there were people shooting guns at the nearby skatepark and then drove to Sydney Fisher Park. The juvenile then advised the people at the park were conducting satanic activity and had someone at gunpoint,” according to the affidavit.
But when they arrived at the park, they didn’t witness anything similar to what the kid described. So, they returned to the house party to find most of the partygoers had left.
There, just after 11.30 p.m., a sergeant saw a car run the stop sign and then almost hit his vehicle. While conducting a traffic stop, the sergeant found two intoxicated female juveniles in the car. Both were sporting “white lie party” attire, police said.
The underaged driver was arrested for DUI and the passenger was cited for possessing marijuana, the affidavit said.
Meanwhile, around the same time, an officer found a teen “vomiting and shaking” in the principal’s front yard. The officer called Brevard County Fire Rescue to treat the child.
That’s when Hill-Brodigan walked out of her home and stood at the top of her driveway, before walking inside and turning off all the lights in the front of her house. Firefighters then had to use their vehicle’s auxiliary lights while treating the child, who was determined to be intoxicated, police previously said.
The officer put the child in the backseat of his patrol vehicle to bring him to the police station, where his mom picked him up.
Anderson, the third-grade teacher, then began to “berate” the fire rescue team, and then told the officer she was upset because the intoxicated child was being put “in a machine,” the affidavit says.
Anderson, who was slurring her words and smelled of alcohol, identified herself as a teacher and admitted she had been hanging out at the party. When the officer informed her that children were drinking at the party, she “interrupted” him and yelled that she already knew that, the affidavit states.
She was charged with child neglect and contributing to the delinquency of a minor.
The following day, officers spoke to Anderson on the phone. “Without any questioning the defendant advised she had no participation in what took place on Country Club Road,” the affidavit says. She insisted she doesn’t participate in “underaged ragers,” the affidavit says.
Anderson explained that Hill-Brodigan had invited her out for a drink and insisted that Hill-Brodigan was sober the entire time, having had just one drink.
She then placed the blame on Hill-Brodigan’s kid, saying he “did what he did,” she added.
Students gave the same story. The party was advertised via Snapchat and was hosted by the principal’s two sons, they told police.
The students provided more insight into the chaotic scene. In one video shared with police, a mask-clad child was taking videos of himself with a firearm, described as a Beretta, and then pointing the weapon at the person filming the video.
There were also fights, including one involving a student with a learning disability, who was punched by another student, who was then slapped by a wrestler, authorities said.
According to the affidavit, the partygoers said the principal made “no attempt” to stop the party: “Students also advised that Elizabeth made no attempt to stop the party at any point and advised that she seemed okay with what was happening.”
However, some said that she told her son to stop the party. Once he ignored her, she didn’t try to stop it again.
Later on January 20, police called Hill-Brodigan. Although she initially agreed to meet in person and provide a statement, she never showed. When the officer called her to see if she was planning on showing up, she “advised that she was not willing to speak with me anymore,” the officer wrote.
After further attempts to speak with Hill-Brodigan, she still refused and was brought to Brevard County Jail. She was charged with child neglect, contributing to the delinquency of a minor and holding an open house party.
Hill-Brodigan and Anderson were both placed on administrative leave, the school district told WESH.