Simpsonian

Indianola police officials arrested freshman Caitlin Betts with interfering with official acts when she refused to back away from her younger sister while rescuers attempted to aid her on Sept. 23.

Betts said her sister was visiting, and she wanted to give her an idea of the college lifestyle.

"I wanted my sister to come-my sister is 16- I wanted her to come and see my dorm room and see kind of what college life like was like," Betts said. "A friend of mine called and said, 'Hey, there's a party tonight at SAE, why don't you come?'"

According to Betts, once they were at SAE, they were offered vodka and Red Bull along with Captain Morgan rum and Coca Cola. Betts admits to consuming rum and coke.

Senior Dusty Thomas, president of SAE, was in the house as the sober monitor for the night at the time the incident occurred.

"I did not know her sister was underage at the time," Thomas said.

Betts periodically checked on her sister throughout the night and at one point found her passed out on the stairs.

"We took her to the couch, and I told the guys to get bread and water," Betts said.

It was at this time the decision was made to call the police and rescue personnel. Thomas said doing so is proper procedure.

"We have risk management procedures in place, and if something like this occurs, the first procedure is to call 911 or appropriate authorities immediately," Thomas said. "The response time was amazing. We've had meetings with multiple campus officials and they've all credited us on how quickly and appropriately everything was handled."

Soon after authorities were dispatched, Betts's sister became responsive.

"I told them to call the cops back and say we didn't need them to come anymore," Betts said. "I was told the cops weren't coming at that point."

Officers arrived shortly after, to the surprise and dismay of Betts.

According to the official police report, Betts was told to stand back and let the rescue workers check out her sister. Betts refused to back up.

"I'm big on family," Betts said. "I brought her here, and I'm going to take care of her."

Police documents state officers had to physically take Betts by the arms and move her back, and as they did this, she began to kick and scream.

"At that point, I'll admit it," Betts said. "I went off and told [the officer] to f*** off."

Officers then handcuffed Betts, placed her in a chair and told her to stay there. Betts continued to yell at the officers and at rescue personnel.

Betts was placed in the back the patrol car and taken to jail. There she was offered a breath test and refused.

Thomas said he has never witnessed an incident like this before at SAE.

"This was the first time it has happened in as long as I can remember," Thomas said.

Article Tools