Stephentown

Teenagers will act like teenagers. Adults should know better.

I say that after reading hundreds of the online messages directed at teens who allegedly attended the infamous party at Brian Holloway's house in Stephentown.

Most can't be printed in this newspaper. Just to give you a sense of the discourse, here are three from Twitter that can:

"Your parents should beat you."

"Bahaha. Watch some of these losers commit suicide now."

"Your parents are lowlifes."

Holloway is a former New England Patriot who lives mostly in Florida but has a house in rural Rensselaer County. On a recent Saturday night, an estimated 300 teens entered the vacant house for a party. They made a mess — and left a photographic history of the craziness on Twitter and Instagram.

Holloway, in turn, responded by putting many of those photos and tweets on his newly created website. As I wrote for last Sunday's column, he was rightfully upset about a party he hadn't authorized and the resulting damage.

"How did this happen?" Holloway asked. "How does this make sense?"

Holloway, by the way, was once accused of vandalizing and stealing from the very same house. More on that later.

Last week, the party became nothing less than a media sensation. This has to be the first teenage bash spotlighted by cable channels, TMZ, newspapers around the world and network news.

"Pretty crazy story," said Carson Daly on "The Today Show."

"This is unbelievable," said Anderson Cooper on CNN.

As someone who helped publicize Holloway's plight, I certainly understand the appeal to media. The story, after all, involves a former pro athlete and wild teenagers, and reveals much about online culture.

But it's time for a deep breath. Let's stop the rush to judgment.

A few points worth noting:

• Some of the teens say Holloway's 19-year-old son played a role in arranging the party. Holloway calls the claim patently false.

• It's reasonable to believe teens who say they had no idea whose house it was, or that they weren't welcome there. They simply heard about a party and went.

• The amount of damage has been wildly exaggerated. News programs, for example, prominently displayed a wall of graffiti as evidence of the destruction. But that barn wall was covered with graffiti long before the party. I toured the house this week, after some repairs had been made, and I saw little evidence of lasting damage.

• Holloway says he's been threatened by parents with a lawsuit, a claim that's been trumpeted as an example of horrible parenting. But I'm not aware of any parent who has publicly discussed any such thing — or defended the teens in any way. Holloway's claim that there were sexual assaults at the party is also unconfirmed.

Now I'm not trying to minimize the poor decisions made by some of the teens or the distress suffered by Holloway, who is fighting to keep the house from foreclosure and dealing with difficult physical issues.

The point is this: Let police decide which teens are most responsible and whether they should be charged with a crime.

"The investigation is ongoing," Yvonne Keefe, spokesperson for the Rensselaer County Sheriff's Office, told me on Friday. "We have not come to any conclusions."

The online world hasn't been so restrained. There, teens have been convicted on scant evidence. They're being bullied by distant adults who think it's their job to teach the kids a lesson.

But what are they teaching, exactly? Swearing from behind a computer screen hardly provides an example of responsible behavior. Some of the teens have been forced to shutter social media accounts.

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Holloway aided the bullying by publishing an online list of teens suspected of attending the party. He has since removed it, but vows it'll soon reappear on his website.

The Internet wasn't so prevalent in 1997, when Holloway was accused of damaging the Stephentown house, then occupied by his estranged wife.

Holloway was charged with violating an order of protection after Bette McKenzie said he cut phone lines, stole things, removed burners from the stove and turned up the heat as high as it would go. (Police were called to the house at least 11 times during the late 1990s, according to a Times Union story from 1997.)

When asked about the incident this week, Holloway called the charge "ridiculous," implied it was racially motivated and said "none of that happened."

McKenzie, who lives now in the Boston area, said she considers the experience ancient history. It isn't clear how or if Stephentown Town Court ruled on the second-degree criminal contempt charge.

But Holloway, at least, didn't have vigilantes attacking him online. He was granted the presumption of innocence and due process of law.

The teens accused of partying at his house deserve the same.

cchurchill@timesunion.com • 518-454-5442 • @chris_churchill