Woman Faces Liquor Charges Police Say She Supplied Rum To Suspect In Courthouse Fire

A Davenport woman has been charged with supplying alcohol to a 17-year-old boy on the night police say he set fire to the Lincoln County Courthouse.

Carla Caskey, 34, is charged with two counts of supplying liquor to a minor on Dec. 21.

One count is for liquor consumed by Will Hill, who was charged with first-degree arson in the fire that gutted the courthouse later that evening.

Caskey said she gave her son a fifth of 151-proof rum on his 19th birthday - the day the courthouse burned - but she didn’t intend for Hill and another teenager to help drink it. She said Hill and another boy passed the evening with her son at the Black Bear Motel.

Caskey is charged with supplying the rum to Hill and her son’s other friend, but not to her son. State law allows minors to consume alcohol in the presence of their parents.

But Caskey said she didn’t see any of the boys drinking when she periodically checked on them at the motel to make sure they weren’t making too much noise.

“The kids were just sitting around and listening to tapes, and playing card games and eating - just kind of there, not doing anything special,” Caskey said.

She said she didn’t notice whether they seemed drunk.

Caskey said she rented the motel room for her son for several days to give a break to her sister, with whom her son had been living. She said her family had been living in scattered quarters since their home burned last spring.

Although Hill’s family believes Caskey’s son and the other boy may have contributed to the courthouse fire, Caskey said she is confident her son never left the motel the night of the fire.

She thinks she is being singled out unfairly. One of Hill’s relatives supplied alcohol to her son without being charged, Caskey claimed.

“I feel that I am being railroaded and that they might as well have me charged with arson right along with him (Hill) just because of the way things have gone down,” she said.

Sheriff Dan Berry said investigators haven’t ruled out the possibility of arson charges against the other boys.

“I don’t have enough evidence to support going one way or the other,” the sheriff said. “It just isn’t far enough along.”

Caskey is to be arraigned Feb. 22 in Lincoln County District Court. If convicted of the misdemeanor alcohol charges, she could be sentenced to a maximum of two months in jail and a $500 fine.

, DataTimes