Partying To Death

Partying to death
By Larry Altman Staff Writer, South Bay Daily Breeze
Posted: 10/30/2010 10:47:04 PM PDT
Updated: 10/30/2010 10:53:08 PM PDT

Seventeen-year-old Mikkel Christian Andersen had made it halfway.

After crossing to the middle of the Harbor Freeway in South Los Angeles, he stood in the carpool lane and took off for the shoulder on the other side.

The Danish teen, a student at the EF International Language School in Redondo Beach, didn't get there. A car struck him in the second lane, killing him instantly in the early morning of Oct. 8.

Coroner's officials said Mikkel's blood-alcohol level measured 0.27, more than three times the legal limit of 0.08 in California for driving.

In the wake of Mikkel's death, along with the rape of a drunken 20-year-old student from South Korea in August, police are focusing their attention on the drinking and partying activities of EF International's student body, largely 17- to mid-20-year-olds who come to the Pacific Coast Highway school from Europe, Asia, Africa and South America to learn English.

A Venezuelan student already has been arrested and convicted of furnishing alcohol to minors on the night the girl was raped. A French student was arrested Thursday and is facing more serious alcohol-related charges in connection with Mikkel's death.

"Obviously when you have really young kids drinking copious amounts, bad things happen," Redondo Beach police Sgt. Phil Keenan said. "There's got to be some culpability in this."

Fellow students and police say Mikkel had spent his last night with more than 30 classmates and American friends aboard a rented "party bus," which took them to a Hollywood club.
Along the route, they drank beer, vodka, rum and other spirits, according to a 20-year-old female student from Europe who was aboard the bus.

"Not just drinking," the student said under condition of anonymity. "I saw a girl, she was an American girl, I saw them taking something. It was Ecstasy."

On the way home about 3a.m., the bus made two stops for students who needed to use a restroom or who had become sick. The first stop occurred at a gas station at Century Boulevard and Figueroa Street. Mikkel, police and friends believe, got off the bus and was left behind when it pulled away.

"We are not a school bus where we have to do a head count," said Sal Zamora, the owner of Whittier-based Luxury Sports, a limousine company that rented out the bus. "He got left behind because his friends or the people who rented that bus on that particular night forgot about him."

Police and students believe Mikkel later walked up a freeway on-ramp on the northbound side, and crossed to the southbound side with the intention of walking toward the South Bay.

Party buses are common

Two students who spoke to the Daily Breeze said party buses have become a regular extracurricular activity for the 340 foreign students who attend EF International for weeks or months.

Students who attend the English-language immersion school live with host families, or in rented apartments in complexes on Avenue G near Palos Verdes Boulevard.

Coming from countries where drinking ages are generally 18 - or as low as 16 in Germany - students found they could not buy alcohol in stores or bars if they are younger than 21.

And when they drank in their Avenue G apartments, other residents complained to their landlords and police, who would crack down on them.

"It's a constant party, night after night," said former resident Angie Wibar, who said she was forced to move away. "The kids, they would run, they would shout from clear across one unit, way across to the other. They would laugh. They would storm upstairs. You could smell it on them as well."

Then students discovered party bus companies, which offer souped-up vehicles with neon lighting, bars, sound systems, and room for dancing, drinking and lounging.

Buses, which rent for $150 to $250 an hour from various limousine companies, are hired by one student, who charges the 30 to 40 other students $35 to $40 each to board.

"Everybody wants to have a good time, so everybody goes," a female student said.

The students usually climb aboard the buses in parking lots outside Albertsons, CVS and behind the Buca di Beppo restaurant. They head for Hollywood, where they dance at Level 3, a club at Hollywood Boulevard and Highland Avenue that caters to the 18-and-older crowd.

Along the way, students of all ages drink alcohol, police and students said.

"It's definitely a problem with these kids getting on the party buses," said Los Angeles police Detective Kim Porter. "With alcohol, bad things happen. We are trying to stop it."

In August, Porter investigated the rape of a female EF student who had been drinking on a party bus before arriving in Hollywood.

There, she met 19-year-old Hector Lopez, Porter said.

"He did take her to a secondary location where the sexual assault occurred," Porter said.
The student, who had become separated from the rest of her EF classmates, reported the crime when she returned to Redondo Beach in a cab. Los Angeles police arrested Lopez on suspicion of committing the crime.

Charges are pending because the student has returned to her native country.

The crime and alcohol use drew the attention of Redondo Beach police officers, who opened their own investigation.

In August, Redondo Beach police arrested Venezuelan student Jember Alfonso Martelo-Oca, 20, who rented the bus the night the student was sexually assaulted. He was charged with misdemeanors including contributing to the delinquency of a minor, serving alcohol to a minor, serving alcohol without a license and conducting business in the city without a license, Redondo Beach City Prosecutor Brenda Wells said.

On Oct. 8, Martelo-Oca pleaded guilty to serving alcohol without a license and was sentenced to three years' probation and to perform 240 hours of community service. He also was ordered to complete a course with the state Alcoholic Beverage Control.

If he does not complete the requirements, Martelo-Oca could face up to six months in jail and a $1,000 fine.

"Basically he arranged for a party bus to go to Los Angeles and he charged a fee for the passengers to ride the bus," Wells said. "Included in that fee was an open bar."

Police arrest roommate

On Thursday, Redondo Beach police officers arrested Jeremy Michelren Touche, a 22-year-old student from France, who roomed with Martelo-Oca with host families in Hermosa Beach and Torrance during the past seven months.

Touche rented the party bus the night Mikkel died.

The Redondo Beach City Prosecutor's Office charged him with contributing to the delinquency of a minor, furnishing or giving alcohol to minors, and selling alcohol without a license.

The charges include the extra allegation that Touche provided the alcohol that Mikkel drank, resulting in his death. He could face a minimum of six months in jail.

Zamora said Touche rented the bus for $550 for the night.

According to students, Touche then charged his classmates about $35 each, meaning he took in more than $1,000. Prosecutors contend making a profit and providing students with alcohol is running a business that requires a license.

After students finished boarding the bus near the Starbucks on Pacific Coast Highway in Redondo Beach, the driver took off about 9:30 p.m.

Zamora said his drivers go where they are told, and park wherever the host tells them to stop.
Before they headed for the Harbor Freeway, the bus stopped at Albertsons and a CVS in Redondo Beach, where Touche allegedly purchased alcohol, the girl and police said.

The female student said most bus riders were 19 and 20 years old. Despite their ages, students drank rum, whiskey, vodka and beer - along with soft drinks - as they rumbled toward Hollywood.

The student, who is underage, said she became tipsy. She saw Mikkel drinking, too.

Teen was a newcomer

A handsome Scandinavian teen, Mikkel had arrived two weeks earlier from his native Copenhagen. To people in the school, he came off as an arrogant young man who made his presence felt when he walked into a room.

Once in Hollywood, Mikkel and many of his fellow students headed for the nightclub. Despite his age, he got in.

"I saw him there and he was very drunk," the student said. "He was just dancing with every girl."

The club closed at 2 a.m. The foreign students headed back to their bus for the trip home. It took time for everybody to board, but by 2:30 a.m. they were on the road.

Some students slept, but others began drinking again. Some became sick.

About halfway into the journey, some students needed a restroom. The driver pulled off the freeway and into a Unocal 76 service station at Century and Figueroa, police said.

The female student said several students got off the bus. Some smoked. Others used the bathroom.

About 15 minutes later, they were back on the freeway. The bus driver made a second stop a short time later on Pacific Coast Highway in Wilmington to allow some female students to vomit. The bus company charges extra if anybody becomes sick, Zamora said.

The bus then headed toward Redondo Beach, where the students exited and went home.

"Somebody got a call saying `my roommate is not here,"' the female student said. "We thought he was with a girl."

By that point, Mikkel was already dead. He would have turned 18 on Nov. 20.
"It was very shocking," the female student said. "I told my roommates. They were on the bus, too. We were shocked."

Students said school officials told them not to discuss what happened. An official at the Danish Consulate in Los Angeles also refused to comment.

The California Highway Patrol handled the freeway death investigation. Redondo Beach police Officer Ian Miesen, meanwhile, began looking into who hired the bus and who supplied Mikkel with alcohol.

Miesen, who had investigated the Martelo-Oca case after the rape, keyed on Touche during his seven-month stay in the United States.

On Thursday, Miesen and fellow Redondo Beach officers arrested Touche when he arrived for school about 2:15p.m.

Like Martelo-Oca, Touche allegedly made a profit from charging his fellow students, police said.
On Touche's Facebook page, he lists "partying" as his activity and posted, "Don't get rape" (sic) under his profile photograph.

Students were expelled

EF International spokeswoman Francy Ronayne said both students were expelled from the school Thursday after Touche's arrest.

Shelly Bishop, an investigator with Alcoholic Beverage Control's Target Responsibility for Alcohol Connected Emergencies unit, said she has joined the investigation as well.

ABC regulates alcohol licenses for businesses in the state. Bishop said she is looking into the roles bus companies play in underage drinking.

She declined to comment further on her investigation.

Los Angeles police officers, meanwhile, have begun pulling over party buses, going on board and checking the ages of the partiers, Porter said.

A recent Los Angeles police and California Highway Patrol task force cited seven bus drivers for allowing minors to drink alcohol, Porter said.

More operations are scheduled.

Zamora said his company is not culpable for anything that happened the night Mikkel died. He said he abides by the rules for his industry, and informs prom groups that they cannot drink alcohol aboard his buses.

In this case, a 22-year-old rented the bus with other college-age passengers, he said. Touche, Zamora said, was responsible for supplying the alcohol to the minors.

"These kids are renting the bus for a night out on the town," Zamora said. "We don't know their age. They are young adults."

Ronayne issued a statement Friday that called it a challenge to supervise students who are allowed to drink alcohol in their home countries, but not in the United States.

Students are informed of American laws in "orientation, ongoing discussions and our written policies."

"We have expelled students before for purchasing alcohol for minors, and we have done so again with the students who organized the October and August party buses," Ronayne said.

Ronayne said it is impossible to monitor students' activities off campus, but school officials are working with Redondo Beach police to combat the alcohol problem, including having officers speak to students.

"In the rare instances when we have heard there may be a party bus off campus, we have alerted the police so they can intervene," she said.

She said the school also is working with the ABC as the agency "investigates what is happening on these party buses and in establishments that admit underage students."

"From this tragedy we have redoubled our efforts in conjunction with local authorities to do everything we can to stem this," Ronayne said.

larry.altman@dailybreeze.com

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