Dean: Son to 'pay the price' for any misdeed
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Dean canceled campaign appearances so he could deal with his son's theft charges.
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WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The 17-year-old son of Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean would "pay the price" for his alleged involvement in what police said was a break-in at a country club that included the theft of alcoholic beverages, Dean said Sunday.
Speaking on NBC's "Meet the Press," the former Vermont governor -- who Monday plans to formally announce his candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination in Burlington -- said it was "a very, very difficult weekend" at the Dean home.
"I'm not very happy about it," he said. "I think that 17-year-olds sometimes do extraordinarily foolish things, and this is one of them. He's going to have to pay the price."
Dean said his son was "more than grounded" and would go through the judicial system to the end.
Paul Dean, a junior at Burlington High School, was issued a police citation for burglary and will be charged as an accessory, the Dean campaign said Friday. He is scheduled to appear in court August 5.
The incident, which occurred late Thursday night or early Friday, involved Dean and four of his friends, at least some of whom are his teammates on the school hockey team, according to the Dean campaign. Paul Dean is the team captain.
A campaign official said Dean was told by Burlington police his son sat in a car while his friends burglarized the Burlington Country Club. He apparently was the driver, police said.
The Deans are not members of the club, and all the items stolen were returned, according to a woman who answered the phone in the country club's business office.
 I think that 17-year-olds sometimes do extraordinarily foolish things, and this is one of them. He's going to have to pay the price. 
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-- Howard Dean, presidential candidate
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The campaign official said the former governor encouraged the police to release details on the incident and asked that his son receive no special treatment.
Dean canceled campaign appearances he had scheduled for Saturday in Iowa to return to Burlington when he learned about the incident, but resumed his scheduled appearances Sunday.
The younger Dean will not join other members of his family Monday at his father's official announcement, but the candidate said "he didn't plan on being there to begin with."
"My son is very guarded about his privacy, so he's chosen not to come, and I said all right," he said.
In addition to the "Meet the Press" appearance, Dean plans to appear at an event sponsored by Jesse Jackson's Rainbow/PUSH group in Chicago, where he will attend two fund-raisers Sunday night, a campaign organizer said.
