Football players' apartment searched

Police report seeing pot while breaking up a loud party

By Sara Ganim

Penn State police searched the apartment where four football players live after responding to a loud party the night of the Blue/White game and seeing marijuana in the kitchen, court papers say.

According to an application for a search warrant, police responded around 11:10 p.m. April 25 to apartment 4103 in the Nittany Apartments complex on campus to help residence life officials break up a loud party.

As soon as they entered the apartment, police said they could see marijuana “in plain view” in the kitchen and smell it throughout the apartment.

An officer could smell the odor of burning marijuana as she approached the apartment, and knocked on the front door several times but received no answer, police wrote.

The fire alarm in the apartment was sounding, so as a safety measure, police said, they asked a woman who had a key to the apartment to let them in.

The warrant, which District Judge Allen Sinclair signed at 1 a.m. April 26, states police intended to search the four-bedroom apartment that night for marijuana, marijuana residue, scales, paraphernalia and other items. The kitchen, living room, bathroom area, hallway and each bedroom were to be searched, according to the document.

Court records indicate that police haven’t filed a “return” on the warrant — a list of what they found during the search.

The warrant on Monday had not yet been filed in the county prothonotary’s office. The CDT got a copy from Sinclair’s office after receiving a tip.

Tyrone Parham, spokesman for university police, said the investigation is marked “continuing” and he couldn’t comment.

The four occupants of apartment 4103 listed on the warrant are all Penn State football players. The CDT is withholding their names because no criminal charges have been filed.

A incident similar to this happened in September when university police responded to a complaint for a loud party at 5204 Nittany Apartments, smelled burning marijuana, got a warrant, seized pot and pills, and later charged two football players who lived there.

A spokesman for the team didn’t return a message.

Sara Ganim can be reached at 231-4616.