Jury finds a Clearcreek Twp. mother and school worker guilty of allowing teens to drink alcohol in her home.
Reported by: Deb Silverman
Photographed by: 9News
Web produced by: Neil Relyea
A judge has sentenced a Clearcreek Township mom to jail for allowing underage drinking.
A jury decided that photos a high school student put on the Internet showed Mary Ellen Hause permitted the teens to drink.
Hause worked as a substitute teaching aid at Springboro High School.
She also filled in doing clerical work as needed.
It took the jury less than two hours of deliberation to convict Hause.
Then Judge Don Oda sentenced her to 30-days in jail.
He also gave her three years probation.
During these three years she can't drink alcohol or have any alcohol in her home – or she'll go back to jail.
The photos which the trial revolved around were discovered by Springboro High School Resource Officer Don Wilson.
He testified that while reviewing student's Facebook accounts, he came across a photo of three students holding open alcohol bottles.
Sergeant Don Wilson says he was shocked when he noticed the adult in the picture was Hause, because of her role as a substitute in the district.
"You've got an adult posing with the kids and all of them had open containers," said Wilson. "And the second thing that bothered me, was she did work for a school and had exposure around kids a lot."
Wilson said he checks Facebook accounts for students causing problems that could trickle into the school.
Springboro police say they found several photos of a group of teens drinking in Hause's basement.
They were there because they're friends with her son.
Two of the teens testified that they brought the Smirnoff bottles and Sparks alcoholic energy drink into the Hause's home and they say Hause sat with them as they played a drinking game.
Prosecutors say one photo tells the whole story, but the defense says it only shows a snapshot of the circumstances.
Hause testified, "I went downstairs and I saw the kids down there. I sat on the couch and the girls – they know me because of working at the school – they all jumped in my lap. And I did take the picture and I didn't notice anything right away."
Hause testified that as soon as she saw the alcohol, she told everyone to leave.
The Springboro School District has not had Hause substitute since the photos were discovered.
The judge told her that while she's in jail he wants her to think about what she can do to keep other parents from allowing their teens to drink.
