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Official charges were filed Wednesday in Kosciusko Superior Court II against more than a dozen people who were awaiting the decision of a special prosecutor.
Matthew Rentschler of the Whitley County Prosecutor's Office filed his oath and acceptance in the underage drinking cases on June 10. The official charges for the 10 people arrested at a party at the Tobias Buck residence May 18 came through Wednesday. Three other people, who were passengers in a vehicle involved in a fatal accident that night, also were charged, and the cases will be handled by Rentschler.
Andrew J. Cook, 19, of Claypool, was pronounced dead at the scene of the accident on Wildwood Trail. He was a passenger in a vehicle that left the Buck residence after everyone in the vehicle reportedly drank alcoholic beverages.
Although the driver of the vehicle, Paul Randall Finnegan, 19, of Silver Lake, was booked into the Kosciusko County Jail several hours after the accident, no charges are on file yet for him. That matter also is being reviewed by a special prosecutor, but no official appointment has been made.
Initial hearings are expected to be held in the next two weeks for the the alleged partygoers, all of whom are charged with illegal consumption of alcohol by a minor. Buck's son, Josh Buck, 19, is among those charged.
Warrants were issued for Daniel Garrido, 19, of 340 E. Levi Lee Road #12, Warsaw, who was booked into the KCJ Thursday afternoon; Macy Moore, 19, of Warsaw; and Justin Miller, 19, Warsaw. All three are charged with illegal consumption of alcohol by a minor.
Garrido, Miller and Finnegan were injured in the accident and were treated at Kosciusko Community Hospital for their injuries and later released. Moore suffered a broken neck and was hospitalized for several days in Fort Wayne before she was released.
