Party's Still Going

Another underage drinker in Moorhead was taken to the hospital early Sunday, the third in three days in Fargo-Moorhead and the fourth since a Minnesota State University Moorhead student apparently drowned in the Red River after drinking at a party Sept. 22.

Moorhead Police Sgt. Brad Penas said Jessica Vandeusen, 19, a Concordia College student, was taken to the hospital at her own request after police found her conscious but intoxicated in a house at 603 9th St. S.

Moorhead Police Sgt. Joel Scharf said officers were called at 2:42 a.m. to break up a loud party at the house, where revelers were setting off fireworks.

While they were clearing the house, officers discovered Vandeusen on the second floor, Scharf said.

The woman, who was conscious, was brought down to the first floor. Scharf said she was given a breath test and registered .233, nearly three times the legal limit for intoxication in Minnesota.

“I think she made the choice herself that it would be in her best interests to go to the hospital,” Penas said.

An ambulance crew was called and she was transported to MeritCare Hospital, Scharf said. A MeritCare nursing supervisor said she was not listed as a patient there Sunday night.

Reached by telephone late Sunday night at her dorm room, Vandeusen declined comment. She said only that she was not aware her blood alcohol registered that high.

Several citations were issued to the home’s tenants, but neither Scharf nor Penas knew exactly what they were issued for.

Sunday’s was the latest in a sudden spate of alcohol-related hospitalizations of young people in Fargo-Moorhead over the weekend.

On Saturday, Jenna xxxxxx*, 19, 137 Prairiewood Drive, was taken from her home by paramedics after she passed out while drinking vodka, Fargo police said. On Saturday afternoon, she was not listed as a patient at either Fargo hospital.

On Friday, 19-year-old Concordia College student Jesse Ringdahl, was taken to Innovis Hospital after a passerby found him semiconscious in the front yard of a home at 919 5th St. S. in Moorhead. He was released from the hospital later that same day.

Moorhead police said Ringdahl had been drinking from a vodka bong, which funnels a large amount of alcohol directly into the drinker’s mouth.

Concern over drinking by young people was spurred last week after the body of Minnesota State University sophomore Patrick Kycia, 19, was pulled from the Red River on Tuesday.

Initial autopsy reports said Kycia drowned, but police believe he drank heavily Sept. 22 at the Phi Sigma Kappa fraternity, 611 10th St. S. in Moorhead.

The day after Kycia’s body was found, former fraternity member Alex Daniel Olson, was arrested in connection with the discovery of 152 grams of hallucinogenic mushrooms in the Phi Sigma Kappa house. The drugs were found in a search of the house connected with Kycia’s death.

That case remains under investigation and toxicology results from Kycia’s autopsy have not yet come back.

* Updated 10/15/2010 - Last name removed as per request.