PROVIDENCE — Ryan Greenberg, the Barrington teen who has been free on personal recognizance since being accused of second-degree murder in the summer boating death of his friend, Patrick Murphy, was sent to the ACI yesterday after he and seven friends were found with alcohol in the Brickyard Pond area of town Saturday evening.

“I am not going to allow him any further freedom because he has indicated he can’t accept the responsibility,” said Special Magistrate Joseph A. Keough, who sent Greenberg off in handcuffs after scheduling a bail hearing for May 1.

The 17-year-old had been ordered to stay away from drugs and alcohol, submit to random drug testing, and be of good behavior when he was released Jan. 2. But last weekend he was part of a group that a Barrington police officer on party patrol says was drinking.

In court yesterday afternoon, prosecutor Christian Capizzo said Greenberg refused to take both a field sobriety test and a breath test.

He was also charged with underage possession of alcohol, although that charge was filed in Family Court.

Greenberg is the best-known example of a “gap kid,” the 17-year-olds who were treated as adults when they were originally arrested, thanks to a change in the law that the General Assembly subsequently repealed. The state continues to wrestle with whether teens in this legal Twilight Zone should be tried in adult or Family Courts. The issue goes before the state Supreme Court May 13.

Because Greenberg was originally arraigned as an adult on the murder charge and on other charges related to Murphy’s death, Attorney General Patrick C. Lynch brought him into Superior Court as a bail violator.

“Not only does [Greenberg’s behavior] show a disregard for the Murphys, the Barrington community and the broader community that has witnessed too much pain, it’s spitting in the face of a judge who showed some leniency in allowing him to be free,” Lynch said last night.

Greenberg, dressed in a maroon golf shirt, khaki pants and sneakers, said little during yesterday’s proceedings.

His lawyer, William C. Dimitri, argued that Greenberg was only ordered to submit to drug or alcohol screening conducted by the state, not by Barrington police.

“Every test he has taken from pretrial services has been negative,” Dimitri said.

He also asked that Greenberg be given home confinement and be allowed to finish high school, contending that none of the police reports said that the teen was drinking.

The charge of underage possession was “based on statements from two individuals there whose cases are pending” before the court, Dimitri contended. “The best information comes from people who are trying to save their own hide.”

Judge Keough wasn’t buying it. “I’m, frankly, very surprised that I am revisiting this case. I would have thought Mr. Greenberg would have been like Caesar’s wife, beyond reproach.”

He said Greenberg has actually been treated better than other “gap kids” because he was given personal recognizance.

Since then, he said, “I have had a number of these ‘gap kid’ cases” where 17-year-olds have ended up in the ACI. “In every instance, the defendant complained that their clients were being held while Mr. Greenberg was being held on personal recognizance.”

Keough said Greenberg “is not a good candidate for home confinement” because he was originally released into the custody of his parents, “who obviously were not keeping tight-enough control to prevent him from violating the terms and conditions” of his release.

Neither the teenager nor his parents, who were in the courtroom, showed any emotion as the judge ordered him to prison. The youth glanced over to his parents after he was handcuffed and led out through a special door by court officers.

Of the eight Barrington teens discovered at the pond Saturday, six, including Greenberg, have been charged with underage possession of alcohol. Only one other, an adult, has been named: Corey J. Place, 18, of 416 Sowams Rd.

Besides Place and Greenberg, possession charges were also filed against two girls, ages 15 and 16, and two boys, ages 16 and 17.

Police Chief John LaCross said more charges may be forthcoming and some of the teens have been charged with underage possession of alcohol before. He would not be more specific.

“At least five of the six” who were arrested had close ties to the recent tragedies in Barrington caused by underage drinking, he said.

LaCross also released a report detailing the discovery of the youths, although the names of all the minors (including Greenberg’s), their parents and the two people who have not been charged have been blacked out.

The report from Patrolman Wesley G. McCoy Jr. says he discovered the teens partying on the easternmost path along the pond.

Officers found more than a dozen beer cans on the ground, a 30-pack with more empty cans on the ground, and more than 15 full cans of beer in backpacks, along with a couple of bottles of Gatorade that apparently contained vodka.

“They were trying to kick [the empty cans] into the pond when the officer arrived,” LaCross said.

The teens had apparently been there for a couple of hours before they were discovered, according to the chief.

Two were asked to take a breath test; both refused.

As they were being led out of the woods, one teen, identified only as number 6, “was using his cell phone calling his parents,” according to McCoy’s report.

“He was yelling into the phone, ‘Call my lawyer, I’m going to the ACI.’ ”

gemery@projo.com