Man says he did not serve alcohol in teens’ crash

Monday, Nov. 17, 2003 | 11:06 a.m.

A Henderson man whose home was one of the last places that five teenagers visited before a car wreck claimed three of their lives said Sunday that neither he nor his wife had allowed anyone to consume alcohol.

In an interview with the Las Vegas Sun, Bob Roman, a commerical airline pilot, said he wanted people to know that if the boys were drinking the night of Nov. 9, the liquor did not come from his home nor was it supplied by anyone in his family.

"Absolutely not, it never happened," Roman said in his first public statement about the crash. "There is no way we would give alcohol to a bunch of kids."

The investigation into the wreck and the circumstances leading up to it is under way, Henderson Police spokesman Shane Lewis said this morning. He declined to comment on the specifics, including whether the Roman household is a focus.

Roman said he and his wife were home asleep at 10:30 p.m. when 16-year-old Sean Larimer, along with 15-year-olds Travis Dunning, Cody Fredericks, Kyle Poff and Josh Parry, stopped by to visit his 14-year-old daughter and several of her friends at his Seven Hills house. His wife was awakened by their 13-year-old daughter about 11:15 and told boys were drinking beer, Roman said. His wife ordered the boys to leave, Roman said.

Just 75 minutes later, Green Valley High School sophomore Larimer crashed his Pontiac Grand Am into a cinder-block wall on Silver Springs Parkway, killing classmate Dunning and Coronado High School sophomores Poff and Parry. Fredericks, also a sophomore at Green Valley, remains at University Medical Center in fair condition.

Larimer, who had been licensed to drive just 63 days at the time of the wreck, was treated at University Medical Center and released last week. Toxicology reports on Larimer are pending.

The Roman residence was apparently one of the last places the five boys visited prior to the 12:30 a.m. crash. Deputy Police Chief Richard Perkins said earlier investigators were looking into whether adults may have supplied the boys with booze.

Rick Poff said based on conversations he's had with teenagers who were with the group that night, he believes alcohol played a part in the crash that killed his son. Kyle and the other boys had been friends since elementary school.

Roman says he saw evidence of drinking outside the home the next morning.

When he had gone to bed at 10 p.m. that Sunday, the only visitors in his home were girls invited by his two daughters, a freshman at Coronado High School and an eighth grader at Bob Miller Middle School. His daughters were not allowed to invite anyone else over, Roman said.

One of the boys later involved in the wreck called his daughter's friend and asked to come over, Roman said. The girl's cell phone showed the next day that the boys called her a second time at 10:30 p.m. to ask for the gate code to their Seven Hills enclave, Roman said.

His younger daughter woke up his wife at 11:15 p.m. to report there were boys at the house with beers, Roman said.

"My wife went downstairs and confronted (one of the boys) and when he told her it was true, she said 'Party over' and told them all to leave," Roman said. "I wish someone would have woken me up, but that didn't happen."

When his wife found one of his daughter's friends throwing away a can of beer, she asked the girl where it had come from. The girl said she had taken it away from one of the boys, Roman said.

The next day Roman found a plastic bag full of beer cans hidden under other garbage in his trash bin and a half-full bottle of vodka in the alley outside. The items were given to police, Roman said.

When told of Roman's comments, Poff said he found it difficult to believe the parents were at home but unaware of the large group of teenagers milling in and around the house. If Roman's wife did see a can of beer in an underage girl's hand she should have called the police at that point, Poff said.

"If she had, maybe things would have ended up different," Poff said.

Barbara Jones, a neighbor two doors away from the Romans, said her dog woke her up near midnight that Sunday. When she looked out her second-story window, Jones noticed 12 to 15 young men gathered outside the Roman home. There was no shouting or fighting, nothing to indicate outwardly there was any trouble, she said.

Jones said she regrets now that she didn't call the police after 12 a.m. to report an apparent violation of the city's curfew for teenagers. Jones, who is retired and spends much of the year traveling, said she was reluctant to get involved that night because she wasn't sure who was outside or whether the parents knew.

"In an ideal situation we all know each other and feel comfortable calling each other up in situations like this," Jones said, after leaving a bouquet of flowers and a note against the side entrance of Roman's house. "That's what I learned from all of this -- we don't know each other. We do a lot of waving, but that doesn't make us neighbors."

Roman said his wife did not know there were other boys outside, as his neighbor later claimed. His wife never left the house that evening to check the front or back yards after ordering the boys to leave, Roman said.

What's frustrating, Roman said, is that his house was not the only place the boys visited Sunday evening.

"The were here less than 20 percent of the night and yet we're responsible," Roman said.

When he learned of the wreck Tuesday, Roman said he was shocked. He was working at a print shop he owns when a woman with office space in the same building came in with an order for memorial T-shirts bearing photographs of the boys who had died. Her son, a junior at Green Valley High School who was friendly with Dunning and Fredericks, came up with the idea.

Roman rushed the order so that 300 shirts could be distributed to students at school the following morning and did not charge her.

He did not tell the woman -- or a television news crew that came to film the T-shirts being printed -- of his own connection to the incident.

"I didn't see a point in mentioning it," Roman said.

As they wait for the police investigation to be completed, Roman said he hopes his family will not be unfairly judged.

He admitted to having several several run-ins with his neighbors in the past about loud noise coming from his home when his daughters' friends have assembled, but none of the complaints resulted in a police citation, Roman said.

When the girls do have parties, Roman said, he requires them to provide a guest list and hires a family friend to serve as an informal bouncer at the security gate.

With its pool, outdoor firepit and trampoline, Roman said, his home is popular with his daughters' friends. But the gatherings must always be cleared in advance and are supervised, Roman said.

"We have three rules -- gone by curfew, no alcohol and if there's anything screwy, like a fight, the party's over," Roman said. "There are a lot of parents who just let their kids run around with no guidance and no consequences. That's not us."