DES MOINES - A party last weekend at the Polk County home of Iowa Supreme Court Chief Justice Marsha Ternus led to the arrest of her husband and alleged underage drinkers.

Deputy Jana Rooker, public information officer for the Polk County Sheriff's Office, said police were called to the home at 9004 N.W. 121st St. about 1:30 a.m. on July 12 on a disturbance complaint.

When the deputy arrived, he found Dennis Drake, 57, in his truck at the end of the driveway, Rooker said.

Drake explained he was there to make sure that when people were leaving the residence they were not too drunk to drive, according to Rooker.

The deputy and Drake went around to the backyard where the deputy saw a bonfire with seven people around it and several beer cans lying on the ground nearby and in the fire, Rooker said.

At that point, Drake attempted to go back to the house against the deputy's orders and was placed under arrest, police said. He was later released on a police citation charging him with interference with official acts, a simple misdemeanor.

Seven 19-year-olds were asked to submit to preliminary breath tests after the deputy detected an odor of alcohol on their breath, noticed they had red, watery eyes and that some of them were slurring their words, Rooker said.

Two of the teenagers did submit to breath tests and tested over the legal blood alcohol limit for driving of .08. One of those teens was picked up by her father and was released and cited for possession of alcohol under the legal age and public intoxication. The other teen was released on a citation for the same charges.

The other five teens who did not submit to breath tests, three men and two women, were taken to jail and charged with possession of alcohol under the legal age and public intoxication. A judge later dismissed the public intoxication charges against those two women, Rooker said.

Robert Drake, 19, who listed the address police were called to as his home, was among those taken to jail, Rooker said.

Rooker could not confirm that the incident occurred at the home of Ternus, but online records from the Polk County Assessor's Office list the address in Grimes as being owned by Denny Drake and Marsha K. Ternus.

A call to a court spokesman after business hours Friday was not returned.

KCCI-TV in Des Moines reported that an Iowa Judicial Branch spokesman called the incident a family matter and said Chief Justice Ternus would not comment.