A Winter Park physician was arrested over the weekend after hosting an alcohol-fueled house party for minors which sent a 15-year-old girl to the hospital, police said.
Winter Park police responded around 12:30 a.m. Saturday to the Chestnut Avenue home of Hao Nhu Tran, 51, after receiving multiple calls about underage drinking, including allegations that children were “falling down drunk,” according to her arrest affidavit.
Tran, who said she was a physician, allowed officers to enter the home, and they smelled alcohol upon walking inside, the affidavit said.
Tran said her son went to Trinity Preparatory School and that 30 other children had been invited to the home. She was hosting and bought food and beverages, she said, but did not provide alcohol to any underage guests, according to the affidavit.
The affidavit said she told officers that students from other schools who she didn’t know began arriving. She saw multiple children consuming alcohol and told her son to ask them to leave by midnight. She would later tell police she also saw teenagers with Solo cups and assumed they contained alcohol.
Tran said she remained in her downstairs bedroom until she was called upstairs around midnight after a 15-year-old girl “passed out” from drinking. She found her in an upstairs bedroom and made sure she was breathing before calling the girl’s mother, according to the affidavit.
The girl’s mother arrived and called 911. The girl and her mother were taken by ambulance to a hospital. When police arrived at the hospital, the girl was vomiting, barely coherent and was unable to answer any questions. Her mother declined to prosecute and mentioned that Tran hadn’t wanted 911 to be called, according to the affidavit.
In Tran’s home, officers found empty alcoholic beverage containers in trash bags that were tied up in the kitchen, including High Noon cans, Smirnoff and hard seltzer containers. Tran’s son told police uninvited guests brought alcohol to the house in backpacks, the affidavit said.
Police determined Tran knew that underage alcohol consumption was happening within her home and allowed an open house party which placed multiple underage guests in jeopardy, leading to the 15-year-old girl’s medical incident, according to the affidavit.
Tran was arrested on charges of contributing to the delinquency of a minor and selling/serving/giving liquor to someone under 21 years of age, court records show.
Her medical practice focuses on the diseases of the ear, nose and throat according to her AdventHealth online profile.