A Princeton cop, perhaps bored with patrolling kids too concerned with their “futures” to make his job necessary, got himself in trouble. The charge:

[H]e provided alcohol to teenagers and played drinking games with them at a party he attended with a 14-year-old boy* in upstate New York in October 2007.

Officer Garrett Brown claims he nursed a drink and bounced. Funny—cops hate when you say that. Better to be honest, especially when there’s “a photograph showing Brown sitting at a table with teens and holding multiple bottles of beer.” (Double fisting!!! You go, sir!) But the real nightstick in Brown’s side is Martha Gates, the host of the party. Presumably by way of saving her own ass—she plead guilty to “unspecified misdemeanor charges”—Gates testified against Brown, even going so far as to claim that he “chewed tobacco with the six teens present at the party.”

Leaving aside how pathetic a party “six teens” is, Gates herself may be the future star of this case. Attempting to discredit her testimony, Brown’s attorney pointed to “her former gang affiliation and her severe anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorders.” You have to admit, she was a party waiting to happen.

*I know, right? The article doesn’t mention him again, so you’ll know when we do.

The cop’s fate and Harvard police behaving (not quite as) badly, after the jump.

If found guilty, it appears that Officer Brown will be suspended at best and fired at worst. As the prosecutor said, “A police officer is a special kind of public official.” Sure—the kind everyone hates. Hell, Brown was probably the only cop at Princeton anyone liked, given his, when you think about it, like, totally chill behavior. (“He even smoked cigs with us!” “No!” “Yes.”)

In other news, two Harvard cops are feeling the heat for taking road trips on the University’s dime to South Dakota and Vermont, respectively. Again, can you blame them? Either kids start getting in touch with their inner criminals, or we leave these guys alone. Actually, why don’t we just do both.