Florida educators arrested after boozy teen party at principal's home goes off the rails, police say

NBC News

29-01-2025

A drunken teenage house party in Florida with shenanigans worthy of a high school movie has led to child abuse charges against an elementary school principal and a teacher, police said.
Hosted on Jan. 19 by a Cocoa Beach High School student at the home of Roosevelt Elementary School Principal Elizabeth Hill-Brodigan, the party was attended by a crowd of more than 100 that included underage drinkers and juveniles, Cocoa Beach police said.
Hill-Brodigan and teacher Karly Anderson allegedly failed to give proper care to juveniles during the festivities, police said.
Hill-Brodigan is charged with child neglect, contributing to the delinquency of a minor and hosting a party with alcohol that was accessible to minors, called an "open house party" under Florida law. Anderson is charged with child neglect and contributing to the delinquency of a minor.
Both were booked into Brevard County Jail on Friday and released Saturday, with $3,500 bond attached to Hill-Brodigan's case and $3,000 to Anderson's, according to jail records.
On Tuesday, each pleaded not guilty via court filings, which also requested jury trials for each move forward without delay.
An attorney for Hill-Brodigan declined to comment Tuesday. Andersons' legal counsel did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Brevard Public Schools said the two have been placed on administrative leave.
"We are extremely troubled by these accusations and are fully cooperating with the Cocoa Beach Police Department," the district said in a statement. "Our commitment to student safety remains our top priority."
Superintendent Mark Rendell said in a letter to the district's parents and community that the allegations, if true, represent "a complete failure in leadership and violation of our trust."
Investigators said the party featured a teenage boy pointing a 9 mm handgun at a student filming him, a vomiting partygoer so drunk paramedics were called, the use of marijuana, the eruption of fights and violence — with one incident reported to be on video — and one teenage girl arrested nearby for driving with a blood alcohol level well above the legal limit of 0.02 for those under 21.
The allegations were presented in a pair of affidavits filed in support of the arrest of the two educators.
The girl's blood alcohol level was 0.118, police said in the documents, which also state that the unidentified driver and her passenger were wearing clothing emblazoned with the night's theme: "white lie."
Two days later, detectives interviewed teenage attendees who said such events happen once to twice a month at the home, with the Jan. 19 party promoted on social media platform Snapchat. Many attendees wore matching "white lie" t-shirts, too, police said in their affidavits.
They said Hill-Brodigan had some students come early to help with "preparations," as she has allegedly done before, according to the affidavits.
"Elizabeth made no attempt to stop the party at any point and advised that she seemed okay with what was happening," detectives said said some of the attendees told them later, according to the documents.
For her part, Anderson told police on the phone the next day that she doesn't participate in what she described as "ragers," according to the affidavits.
Hill-Brodigan's home is listed in jail records as being on Country Club Road, an intracoastal street that runs through the upscale Cocoa Isles Country Club and River Sunset neighborhoods, where residences have been listed for sale at nearly $2 million. Anderson lives at an address on the same road, according to jail records.
The high school is less than a half-mile away.
It's not clear what may have motivated the educators to allegedly help teenagers throw parties. One affidavit says that Anderson told officers her own children were not in attendance that night.
At that Jan. 19 event, police said, alcoholic coolers were seen, and the high school host, a juvenile girl, was featured in social media photos from the event holding a can of an alcoholic beverage.
Anderson was described in the police affidavits as inebriated. At one point, as Anderson protested the ill partygoer's medical treatment by paramedics, police told her to "go away," the court documents state. She told officers that night that Hill-Brodigan was not drunk because she had so far had only one beverage, according to the affidavits.
Officers were called to the home multiple times that Sunday night — starting at 8:40 p.m. and extending into the 11 o'clock hour — based on neighbors' disturbance reports, including claims that young attendees were trouncing over their property, police said in the affidavits.
The first time, police said, Hill-Brodigan indicated the festivities would be shut down. But they partied on, and officers were called to respond anew, according to the court documents.
It finally ended with a prank, the affidavits state.
Someone who sounded like a juvenile boy reported shots fired at a nearby skatepark shortly before 11:30 p.m., according to the affidavits. He added that there was also a nearby satanic ritual taking place and, as part of it, someone was being held at gunpoint, the affidavits state.
Police responded, leaving the festivities to carry on unabated, the documents state.
The false report may have allowed attendees to flee without facing possible police scrutiny or arrest, the affidavits suggest: When officers returned, the partygoers had vanished.