The father of a woman accused of providing alcohol to one of four New Hope teenagers injured in an automobile accident said his daughter only gave one of the teens one sip of her beer.
The incident occurred at a tailgate party at a Mississippi State University football game on Oct. 8, when 21-year-old Abigail Kemp allegedly gave the beer to a 17-year-old, who later that evening was involved in a car accident that sent him, the driver and two other teenage passengers to nearby hospitals with severe injuries.
Agents with the Alcoholic Beverage Control division of the Mississippi Department of Revenue arrested Kemp Friday and charged her with one count of furnishing beer to a person under 21 and one count of contributing to the delinquency of a minor. Both are misdemeanors.
But Kemp’s father, former local law enforcement officer Carl Kemp, said all his daughter did was give one of the teenagers one swallow of beer out of her cup. And it wasn’t the driver, he added. She certainly did not buy anyone beer, he said.
“People are commenting on it that don’t even know the story behind it,” Carl Kemp said. “My daughter said, ‘You don’t understand. If you don’t know the story, don’t comment on it.’
“She provided one of them a swallow out of her cup,” he said. “That’s what she’s arrested for. That’s what the (ABC) agent told me also.”
ABC Chief of Enforcement Rusty Hanna said Abigail Kemp admitted to providing one of the teens, who was 17, with beer. He said agents have evidence she was aware one of the other teenagers, also 17, was drinking beer, leading to the two charges.
“We can’t prove she gave (the second teenager) anything, but we can prove he was drinking and she allowed him to drink,” he said.
However, Hanna said there is no evidence that Kemp provided the 18-year-old driver, Tyler Coleman, with alcohol and doubts Kemp will be charged with anything else.
The four teenagers, three of whom are students at New Hope High School, were all severely injured when their vehicle ran off the highway and rolled multiple times. Passengers in the car included 17-year-olds Kyle Cruthirds and Darius Hendricks and 15-year-old Maddie Burns.
All four teenagers were airlifted to the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson for treatment in the days following the accident. Master Sgt. Criss Turnipseed of the Mississippi Highway Patrol said MHP is still investigating the accident, and the State Crime Lab is conducting a toxicology examination to determine whether Coleman had alcohol in his system at the time of the accident. If the toxicology report indicates the driver had been drinking, the information will be turned over to District Attorney Scott Colom’s office, Turnipseed said.
As of yet, no charges have been leveled against any of the four teenagers.
Kemp was released from the Oktibbeha County Jail Friday on a $1,000 bond. If convicted, she faces community service and/or a fine of between $200 and $500 for the first charge and a maximum fine of $1,000, or up to a year in jail, for contributing to the delinquency of a minor charge.
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