A 51-year-old Old Westbury woman is facing criminal charges after police say roughly 200 high school-aged teenagers were drinking at her home and two of them ended up hospitalized, unconscious. Officers were called to 2 Pinetree Lane just after 11 p.m. for a medical emergency involving a 16-year-old, and what they found inside was a packed house party with alcohol flowing freely among a crowd of minors.
According to fox5ny.com, officers responding to the 911 call found a 16-year-old and a 17-year-old unconscious, and both were rushed to a local hospital. As News 12 New York reported, police said numerous other underage attendees also showed signs consistent with alcohol consumption once officers began working the scene. The homeowner, identified as Efrat S. Fridman, was taken into custody as the resident of the house where the party was held.
Fridman was charged with endangering the welfare of a child and with violating the local Social Host Law, the station's report notes. She was released on a desk appearance ticket and is due to be arraigned at First District Court in Hempstead.
What Nassau's Social Host Law Actually Requires
Nassau County's Social Host Law was enacted specifically to deter minors from drinking alcoholic beverages inside private homes, according to Nassau County government documentation. The law bars anyone over 18 who owns, rents, or otherwise controls a residence from knowingly allowing people under 21 to drink there, and it also penalizes a homeowner who learns drinking is happening and fails to take reasonable corrective action, per the county's own guidance. Separately, endangering the welfare of a child is classified as a class A misdemeanor under New York Penal Law, according to the New York State Senate's published statute.
A Busy Weekend for Underage Party Busts Across Nassau
The Old Westbury case landed amid a wave of similar Halloween-weekend enforcement across the county. Nassau County police broke up multiple house parties involving underage drinking over the same stretch, according to News12 Long Island. In Long Beach, officers dispersed a gathering of around 250 young people on East Park Avenue and issued the parents of that household summonses for a social host violation. In Mineola, police arrested a 53-year-old man, identified as Thomas Quinn, after a noise complaint led them to a home full of people under 21 and open alcohol containers; Quinn was charged with violating the social host law, endangering the welfare of a child, and unlawful dealing with a minor.
The pattern isn't confined to Long Island. In Cranston, Rhode Island, police responded to a Halloween party estimated at 150 attendees, many of them juveniles, according to the Fall River Reporter. The adult resident there, 47-year-old Silvia Acevedo, was arrested and charged with furnishing alcohol to underage persons after acknowledging she had permitted the gathering. Rhode Island's own social host laws similarly expose adults who knowingly allow minors to possess or consume alcohol to criminal charges, the outlet reported.
Underage Drinking Numbers Climbing on Long Island
The Old Westbury arrest also arrives against a backdrop of rising underage-drinking enforcement across Nassau and Suffolk counties. About 13% of Nassau and Suffolk 10th graders reported having already been drunk, most often at parties, according to data cited by Newsday. In 2025, Suffolk County arrested 78 motorists between 16 and 20 for driving under the influence, a 110% jump from the 37 such arrests recorded in 2023, the paper reported. Nassau County saw a smaller but still notable increase, logging 26 underage-motorist DWI arrests in 2025 compared with 23 the year before. Both counties have also reported year-to-year increases in arrests for social host law violations, according to the same Newsday analysis.
