Police Beat Final

UW-Oshkosh student Matthew J. Feuerhelm, 19, was charged with underage drinking after a police officer discovered him being noisy in a hallway Wednesday morning.

“I don’t understand why he stopped me,” Feuerhelm said. “I was doing absolutely nothing wrong that night. I wasn’t calling any attention to myself.”

According to a police report, police officer Brian Murphy found Feuerhelm knocking loudly on a door in North Scott Hall. Murphy checked Feuerhelm's identification and noticed that "he had glassy, bloodshot eyes and slurred speech.”

After telling the officer that he had been drinking that night, Feuerhelm let Murphy into his room. The police officer reported that “two open cans of beer were plainly visible.”

Feuerhelm’s blood alcohol content was 0.127 percent. Murphy issued him a citation.

“Because of this ticket I now have outstanding fines totaling $700, and I might have to drop out of school,” Feuerhelm said.

Feuerhelm later denied Murphy’s request to search his room saying that he had “personal things in there.”

Murphy said that this was Feuerhelm’s first underage drinking offense.




Verifying the Information

After I obtained an incident report from the University Police station, I spent many days wondering how I was going to find the courage to actually go out and interview someone that was involved with this crime. I started with a Google search of the alleged perpetrator (Matthew J. Feuerhelm), but did not find any information. After class on Monday, I decided that I would attempt to interview Matthew. Instead of giving him the chance to hang up on me, I thought I would make it a little more difficult for him to turn me away. I walked over to North Scott Hall for a face-to-face interview. I was scared out of my mind.

Before I entered the dorm, I double checked Matthew’s room number which was listed on the police report. I walked up to the third floor, knocked on the door and was told by the two freshmen boys who lived there that, of course, I had the wrong room. I read the police report wrong. They told me that Matthew’s room was two doors down and that he had just left. They said he would be back in about 15 minutes and invited me into their room to wait. When Matthew returned, he verified all of the information on the police report and what I had written so far. He also gave me a few quotes. He was very cooperative.

I also tried to talk to police officer Brian Murphy. Sara and I went back to the University Police station after class on Tuesday, but were told that Murphy was not in.