A former coach at McDaniel College was placed on six months' probation yesterday for interfering with police officers trying to break up an off-campus party where nearly two dozen underage drinkers were served citations.
Keith Robert Reitenbach, 46, who resigned in July after 10 years as the men's lacrosse coach at the Westminster school, was given probation before judgment in Carroll County District Court after pleading not guilty to the misdemeanor charge of failing to obey a police officer.
Under the terms of his sentence, ordered by Judge Marc G. Rasinsky, Reitenbach will have no criminal record in the case if he commits no serious traffic violations and obeys all laws.
Reitenbach, of the 500 block of Pinehurst Circle in Westminster, was arrested April 21 at a house in the first block of Carroll St., according to Westminster police, who were responding to a complaint from neighbors about a loud party.
Officers went to a second-floor apartment and saw more than 60 college-age students, most of whom were consuming alcoholic beverages, Assistant State's Attorney Douglas L. Nelsen said yesterday.
As the police tried to check the identification of partygoers to verify their age, a man later identified as Reitenbach blocked a doorway, the prosecutor said.
The man - who was holding a red cup with a brownish liquid in it and who had watery eyes and smelled of alcohol - argued with the officers, saying, "You have no right to be here," "You need a search warrant" and "I know the law," Nelsen said.
After Reitenbach refused the officers' request that he leave the party, he was arrested, the prosecutor said.
Nelsen said that the defense agreed to that version of the incident, except to add that Reitenbach had been at the party for only five minutes and to point out that it was a two-family home, with one apartment per floor.
"This is irresponsible behavior, regardless of whether or not he committed a criminal act," Nelsen said.
Attempts to obtain comment from Reitenbach or his attorney, Erin M. Danz, were unsuccessful.
Reitenbach was found not guilty of disorderly conduct, also a misdemeanor charge.
"Because the incident happened in a private residence, he didn't disturb the public peace," Nelsen said.
Reitenbach resigned as the Green Terror lacrosse coach after leading the team to its best season in his 10 years. The team finished 12-2 and won the Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference.
Under his leadership, the team was 88-53 overall and 34-10 his last three years as coach. He also taught exercise science at McDaniel, but resigned from that position last summer.
"He definitely had the program going in the right direction," Stephen E. Peed, director of sports information for the school, said yesterday.
Before coming to what was then known as Western Maryland College, Reitenbach coached at Cornell University from 1986 to 1992, and at the University of North Carolina in 1985, according to Peed.
When Reitenbach was a student at Cornell in the mid-1970s, he played lacrosse for a team that won two national championships, three Ivy League championships and set a National Collegiate Athletic Association record of 42 consecutive victories.