Gaelapalooza Draws Police Response

For the students it's a chance to let off a little steam and enjoy some outdoor music as commencement approaches. For some neighbors it's a noisy intrusion and for police, well, it can be kind of a pain.

This year's "Gaelapalooza" brought a mix of rap and mainstream music to the Saint Mary's College campus May 7. It also brought police, who were called on to intervene in a number of incidents - most of them involving alcohol and behavioral changes induced by said alcohol.

The event kicked off in the early afternoon, with neighbors questioning the decibel levels and the first call for police coming in at 3:35 p.m., when officers were dispatched to the college on a report of a strong-arm robbery that had just taken place there.

When officers arrived they ascertained that two female students had gotten into a scuffle, suffered minor abrasions to their arms, but that no robbery had taken place. A cool-down moment was taken and both sides when to their respective corners with no further action taken, until...

...an hour later at 4:30 p.m., when a 20-year-old student was stopped by a campus public safety officer who believed him to be too intoxicated for the public at large and placed him under citizens arrest. Moraga police gave the student the ride to the Main Detention Facility in Martinez.

And at 6:31 p.m. that afternoon, officers were once again sent to the college to handle a report of a drunk driver involved in a hit-and-run collision, also being detained by campus police.

Moraga officers determined that the 19-year-old man in question had been drinking prior to a collision with a parked car - leaving the scene without the obligatory note to the owner. Blood was drawn and the partygoer was taken to the Main Detention Facility in Martinez.

It was not immediately known if there was some case overlap from the previous drunk driving arrest or another, almost identical incident but Moraga police officers reported visiting the college again at 7:13 p.m. for another individual detained after allegedly hitting a parked car and driving off. The individual, whose age was not given, was later arrested for driving under the influence and a misdemeanor charge of hit-and-run forwarded to the district attorney's office for follow up and possible prosecution.