Youth hospitalized after drinking bout

A 15-year-old Sisters boy was rushed to St. Charles Medical Center in Bend Friday night, December 9, after he collapsed in the snow during a drinking bout with several other teenagers.

According to Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office reports, a deputy responded to a report of screaming and shouted obscenities in a neighborhood on the south side of Sisters. The deputy found a minivan parked in the roadway and contacted a man walking toward it, who reportedly told the deputy that his son had collapsed and was going to die.

The deputy went to the man’s house where he found the 15-year-old “unconscious, unresponsive and convulsing” on the floor. The deputy called for medics.

According to sheriff’s office reports, the youth had apparently collapsed in the snow a short distance away. His 12-year-old brother had run home to tell his parents his brother needed help and the father responded to the scene and drove the boy home.

Deputies interviewed the 12-year-old and pieced together the events: Two Sisters brothers, aged 16 and 15, allegedly persuaded an adult, 51-year-old Thomas Henry Cribbins, to purchase a “fifth” of Everclear and a half-gallon of vodka for them. The youths paid for the alcohol and allegedly met Cribbins at the Village Green Park to collect it. They reportedly told Cribbins he could keep the change.

The two youths and a 16-year-old girl who had joined them took the alcohol to a house on Jefferson Street where they shared it with several other juveniles, including the victim. The 12-year-old brother was at the scene but deputies believe he did not take part in any drinking.

There was allegedly an altercation between one of the youths who furnished the alcohol and the victim over the victim’s allegedly kissing one of the girls. The youth pushed the victim who fell and cut his hand on broken glass.

Later a group of the youths walked to a Sisters store and purchased some non-alcoholic drinks. At some point the 15-year-old victim collapsed in the snow.

According to sheriff’s office reports, the youth had a blood-alcohol count of .227 — nearly three times the limit at which an adult is considered too drunk to drive — at the time of his treatment.

Deputies arrested Cribbins at his apartment on two counts of furnishing alcohol to a minor. The also arrested the two brothers for furnishing as well as being a minor in possession of alcohol. One of the brothers was also charged with fourth-degree assault and criminal mischief for punching a hole in a wall.

A 16-year-old girl was cited for furnishing and others were cited for being minors in possession of alcohol.