editorial comment Well, the old guys at the country club know very well that booze is just plain fun. paraphernalia is surprised that there are no suggestions that these drinks were spiked. One more sad story in the failure of educating people.

Over a 10-hour time period, Samantha Spady consumed the equivalent of 30 to 40 drinks, mixing beer and hard liquor, Fort Collins Police officials said Friday. The 5-foot-6-inch, 126-pound Colorado State University sophomore, who died almost two weeks ago, had a blood alcohol content of .436.
A blood alcohol content of .40 is considered potentially lethal and usually would lead to a person lapsing into a coma, said Dean Beers, Larimer County deputy coroner.

The official cause of Spady's death was listed as acute ethanol poisoning, Beers said. While extensive testing was done to look for additional drugs such as Ecstasy or date rape drugs, none was found.

Spady was found dead Sept. 5 in an unused room on the second floor of the Sigma Pi fraternity house. The university has pulled the fraternity's charter since.

Fort Collins police Thursday cited 19 individuals, including two members of the Sigma Pi Fraternity, for pro-curing alcohol for an underage person. Of the 19 cited, 13 also were cited for underage drinking.

No one will be charged specifically with contributing to Spady's death, and no additional citations are expected, said Cliff Riedel, Larimer County chief deputy district attorney.

There was no evidence anyone forced Spady to drink or was aware of the severity of her condition.

"This was a lot of inexperienced college drinkers and a lot of binge drinking," Riedel said.

Beers said Spady's BAC was the highest he personally had witnessed in his career but not the highest BAC he'd heard of, noting that a New Mexico man walked into an emergency room with a .70 BAC.

It is unknown whether Spady would have survived had she been checked on earlier, Beers said.

Fort Collins police Detective Kristy Volesky said reactions from those questioned by police during the investigation varied.

"Some felt responsible," Volesky said. "Some said they did not feel it was their fault and that it was Sam's choice to drink."

Calls to several of those cited were not returned, or students declined to comment.

Providing alcohol to a minor is a class II misdemeanor, Riedel said. It carries a penalty of a possible 90 days to one year in jail and between a $250 and $1,000 fine.

Consuming alcohol under age is a petty offense, and carries a penalty of a $100 fine, Riedel said. All of the alcohol was purchased legally, said Volesky, adding that investigators checked receipts. But some of the alcohol was later given to those cited, who provided it at parties where Spady was drinking that night.

Arraignment for the 19 people is scheduled for Oct. 27.

Those cited attended or gave parties or were at gatherings at which Spady was present the night before she died.

Officials said the citations were appropriate, based on the information from their investigation. They also said they didn't feel these actions were "hollow" in light of Spady's death, which was ruled accidental.

"We didn't want this to happen and neither did anyone else," Fort Collins Police Chief Dennis Harrison said.

During the next two weeks Colorado State University officials will meet with each of the 19 students individually to discuss their case, what role they may have played in the last hours of Spady's life and what, if any, penalties they will receive from the university, said Anne Hudgens, director of judicial affairs at CSU.

"Depending on their behavior and level of responsibility and their past record, the options could range from probation up to removal from the university," said Hudgens, adding that expulsion would likely only come if the student declined to take part in an alcohol-treatment program.

The university has created a task force to look at the issue of alcohol on campus and already has taken several steps to address the problem, including banning alcohol from all fraternities and sororities and from Hughes Stadium this football season.

"I think good things will come of this tragedy," Hudgens said.

Harrison, a member of CSU's alcohol task force, agreed.

"This isn't just a Fort Collins issue," Harrison said. "It's a cultural issue. ... It's going to take the whole community to solve this."

by Stacy Nick

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