An East Haven mom of five is denying the accusations that she gave her middle school age daughter and the daughter's friends alcohol and smoked marijuana with them on graduation day
Lisa Marie Avery, 35, who was arrested on Friday night, said the whole story has been blown out of proportion and it couldn't be further from the truth.
"Those accusations aren't fair and the statements against me aren't true," Avery said.
Avery volunteered to chaperone her daughter and five other 13-, 14- and 15-year-old children on June 27 for the East Haven Middle School graduation and rented them a limo.
The car picked them up at the high school and Avery collected money to pay for the car and got in to travel with them, police said.
The first stop was Dunkin Donuts for frozen drinks, then an East Haven liquor store, where Avery bought them Mike's Hard Lemonade and nip bottles of vodka that were mixed with fruit punch, according to the police report.
She told the teens not to tell anyone or she would get into trouble, one teen told police, but Avery denies ever saying that.
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One of the students who was in the car said Avery took them to the beach in West Haven, lit a marijuana cigarette and passed it around to some of the teens.
"I lost the children at the beach for 45 minutes. To my knowledge, no one was drunk," Avery said.
After about an hour and half at the beach, they got back in the car, where two of the students got so sick that they vomited in the limo, one teen told police. Avery doesn't deny that, but says it wasn't because of alcohol.
"One kid got sick and then another did. The limo driver thinks it was claustrophobia. There wasn't a skylight or any windows, really," Avery said.
Avery then took the juveniles to McDonald's for food, the police reports said, and the limo dropped the teens off at their homes.
Police said one of the teens filed a complaint on June 27 and there was evidence of alcohol in the vehicle after the children were dropped off.
When police spoke to Avery, she denied going to the liquor store and giving the students alcohol or marijuana.
Police spoke with someone from the limo company who said that Avery was seen going into Stop & Shop near the liquor store and coming out with brown paper bags, which the grocery store does not use, and the divider in the limo went up once the group got back in the car.
The driver also told police she smelled vomit in the car and found an empty can of Mike's Hard Lemonade left behind.
Police arrested Avery around 6:45 p.m. on Friday and she was charged with three counts of risk of injury, impairing the morals of a minor and three counts of permitting a minor to possess alcohol.
"Not one of these kids slept at home that night, not one of them went home to their house, so what happened afterward, I have not clue. That was not my responsibility," Avery said.
She was released on a $1,000 non-surety bond and is due in court date is Aug. 10.
