Two accused of hosting teen party

Barrow County authorities arrested a Bethlehem couple on nearly two dozen charges stemming from an "underage drinking party" that sent an 18-year-old woman to the hospital with alcohol poisoning last weekend.

Sheriff's deputies began investigating early Saturday when they learned that the woman had been dropped off, unconscious, at Barrow Regional Medical Center in Winder.

Investigators tracked down the people who took the woman to the hospital and learned she had attended what deputies described as a drinking party Friday night with "numerous teenagers (mostly local high school students)."

The couple who hosted the party on Harvey Lokey Road west of Bethlehem - a 36-year-old man and his 28-year-old wife - furnished alcohol for the teens and the man allegedly tattooed two juveniles Friday night, deputies said.

Deputies arrested Horace and Stacey Hutchinson, both of 220 Harvey Lokey Road, on 22 charges, including furnishing alcohol to minors, contributing to the delinquency of minors, maintaining a disorderly house and violating the state controlled substances act.

Horace Hutchinson also faces charges of tattooing the body of persons under 18, deputies said.

The couple does not have any teenage children, and detectives are trying to find how the teenagers, mostly high school students, found the party, according to Matt Guthas, a spokesman for the Barrow County Sheriff's Office.

The unconscious woman, whose identity deputies withheld, has since been released from the hospital, Guthas said.

Deputies were called to Barrow Regional early Saturday after emergency room staff could not find the people who had dropped off the teen. They were able to find the parents of a child who had not attended the party and establish that they had taken the girl to the emergency room, Guthas said.

Someone had called the uninvolved teen's parents, and they picked her up from the Target parking lot at Georgia Highways 316 and 81 south of Winder - and almost around the corner from Harvey Lokey Road, which is just south of Ga. 316. The 18-year-old and another partygoer were waiting in the store parking lot when the parents arrived, Guthas said.

Deputies have talked to 20 to 25 teenagers who attended the party.

The students told deputies that the Hutchinsons had provided alcohol and partygoers were drinking heavily.

Deputies searched the home on Saturday and found a number of liquor bottles, other alcohol containers and a small amount of suspected methamphetamine. They also seized several tattoo guns, ink and other supplies, Guthas said.

Horace and Stacey Hutchinson were taken to the Barrow County Jail on Saturday and since have been released on bond, he said.

Deputies confirmed that at least two teenagers got fresh tattoos. Guthas wouldn't elaborate because he didn't want to identify the juveniles, but the teens' families have been advised to have their children tested for blood-borne diseases, he said.

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