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Host Speaks Out On Charges In Teen's DUI Death

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By Kathleen Cullinan / The Naples Daily News

Published: October 3, 2007

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Kevin Curtin says he didn't know the pretty classmate who showed up at his birthday party Aug. 30 with a can of Red Bull in her hand.

The Florida Gulf Coast University student spoke out through his attorney Tuesday for the first time since his "open house party" charge became public, saying it's not his fault that Plant High School graduate Mary Grace Taaffe got drunk that night in his Estero apartment.

Mary Grace Taaffe

Curtin said Taaffe wasn't invited to the party. He said she tagged along with a group of guys. He said he barely spoke to her, didn't see her leave, and had no idea she'd been topping off her cans of Red Bull with rum. He said it's not his fault she wrecked her BMW on the way home and died.

"It appears the person who made the wrong decision that night was the person who had a blood alcohol level of 0.139 and decided to drive," attorney Michael Hornung, retained this week to represent Curtin, said, referring to Taaffe. "Sometimes it's just a tragic accident. Case closed."

Curtin and his roommate, Nicholas Herrig, are facing misdemeanor charges that they knowingly hosted a party at which 18-year-old Taaffe — and others who were underage — drank alcohol. The statute rarely is used, and Hornung said the events of that night, in his client's telling, don't measure up to the charge.

Hornung said his client plans to meet with the state attorney's office to try to get the case dropped. Curtin reportedly is set for a court appearance on Oct. 18.

After Curtin's 19th birthday party Taaffe was driving north on U.S. 41, doing at least 78 mph, when she lost control on a curve and spun into a cluster of trees, according to the Florida Highway Patrol.

Authorities concluded the crash was her fault.

Taaffe's mother, Davis Islands resident Mary Bruce Taaffe, said she and her husband generally were unsupportive of the charges filed Sunday. She said the blame rests squarely on her daughter.

Curtin, a captain of the golf team at his Sarasota high school who plans to study business, has gotten several supportive e-mails from his professors at FGCU, Hornung said. The attorney wasn't sure whether school officials will seek to punish Curtin, but he said they should know the teen "was doing everything he should do" that night. The teen told his attorney he wouldn't have let Taaffe climb into her car if he'd known she was drunk. In fact, Hornung said, he and his friends had arranged for a designated driver that night for themselves in case they decided to leave their apartment.

Hornung said Curtin maintains his and is "very sorry this happened to the young lady."

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