Outraged Neighbors Speak Out On Freetown “Ambush” Party

The town of Freetown is ready to take action against the organizers of an out-of-control house party that happened over the weekend.

After the party of well over 1,000 people took over a neighborhood, the Freetown Board of Selectmen held a meeting on Monday to inform angry residents about possible punishments, and how to prevent it from happening again.

The Freetown Police Department, which had three officers working at the time, made the decision not to break up the party for fear of violence breaking out.

Party organizer Ashley Lochard had requested police detail for the event, but described the event as a large family get-together.

Police Chief Carlton Abbott described the event as an "ambush" party, when it turned out to be much more than described, including a cover charge, a DJ, and even separate security staff to handle the bus-loads of people being dropped off.

While the detail officer was scheduled to arrive and begin directing traffic at 9 pm, neighbors say party goers began arriving as early as 6 pm. Abbott said that by the time the officer arrived there was already about 400 people at the house.

Resident Craig Vierra said while the Freetown Police Department were in a tough position, more could have been done.

"Pubic urination would be the smallest of my gripes considering there [was] lots of drinking, yelling, obscenities, smoking marijuana, and it was allowed. Basically, we were a lawless town for a few hours one night," Vierra told WBSM News.

During the meeting, Abbott defended the department's decision not to break up the party despite parked cars and people in the street preventing emergency vehicle access to the neighborhood.

"When looking at all of the facts, they were distilled down to a large, noisy party, and we tried to avoid a confrontation and an escalation that would have lead to use of force and probably injuries," Abbott said.

While Berkley and Lakeville officers were sent to help, Abbott said many more officers would have been needed to keep the crowd under control if action was taken.

Town officials are looking into filing potential charges against the party organizers, including disturbing the peace, keeping a disorderly house, not having an entertainment license, serving liquor without a license, and other Board of Health violations.

Since police detail was requested, the department will also revise their detail forms to include more event information, and will penalize false information with perjury charges.