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HEMPSTEAD, Texas -- Dozens of arrests on drug and trespass charges followed a weekend rave party that had been held despite a court order banning it.
A prosecutor on Monday filed a contempt motion against representatives of the event's promoters, including a Hempstead lawyer, for violating a restraining order issued by a state district judge.
Waller County Judge Glenn Taylor, who has a private law practice in Hempstead, had represented the promoters last week in a hearing on the court order to stop the party.
About 70 people were arrested in connection with drug possession and criminal trespass at the party Saturday that drew as many as 10,000 people to a rural area south of Brookshire, Texas, which is 35 miles west of Houston.
District Attorney Sherry Robinson said that the event, scheduled to start about 2 p.m. Saturday and go all night, went ahead as advertised despite the order she had obtained.
She requested Judge Jon Delaney, who issued the order, to assess damages against the defendants including costs of policing the event.
Waller County Sheriff Randy Smith said that about 150 officers from the Texas Department of Public Safety and nearby jurisdictions joined in the effort, including undercover drug work.
Smith said that the drug arrests were chiefly for the popular underground drug ecstasy and the criminal trespass charges stemmed from illegal parking on private property. Most of those charged had posted bail by late Monday afternoon, he said.
Parking was so scarce for the party on wooded land south of Interstate 10 West near the Brazos River that many people left their cars along the freeway service road up to five miles from the site.
Robinson said that the gathering, promoted by Cool World and CAN Inc., was held on land owned by A-Star Investments.
Most of the partiers, Smith told the Houston Chronicle, were teenagers who "on the whole, were very polite and well-behaved."
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Posted: 8:17 a.m. CDT September 25, 2001
Updated: 8:31 a.m. CDT September 25, 2001