• Hazing Deaths Database:
  • Blog
  • Storytelling
  • Bio
  • High School Sexual Hazing Incidents
  • Campus Speaker: Hazing & Binge Drinking
  • Hank Nuwer: selected media coverage
  • World Hazing Incidents
  • “Hazing,” “Sons of the Dawn,” “Legend of Jesse Owens”

Hank Nuwer's Hazing Scholarship Site

Follow me on Social Media

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Cattle prods may have been back in style at UT: police charges

April 25, 2008 By Hank Nuwer Leave a Comment

AUSTIN — Four former University of Texas fraternity leaders were charged today with cultivating a dangerous culture of hazing that included shocking pledges with cattle prods, beating them and making them drink large amounts of alcohol.

The misdemeanor charges were not directly related to the death of the 18-year-old prospective member of Sigma Alpha Epsilon who fell to his death from a dormitory balcony in 2006, but the charges are from that same year.

According to court documents, pledges were repeatedly shocked with the electric cattle prods, beaten with bamboo sticks and at least once kicked “field goal style” by the fraternity president. They also were made to drink large amounts of alcohol and perform manual labor, according to affidavits filed by Travis County Attorney David Escamilla’s office.

“We are raising the ante against hazing, we are raising the ante against those providing alcohol to people who are underage, and we will now prosecute for failure to report hazing,” Escamilla told the Austin American-Statesman in its online edition today.

The fraternity recently struck an agreement with UT that allows it to continue operating in exchange for changes to the process of initiating new members and conducting social activities.

Tyler Cross, a freshman from Georgia, was found dead Nov. 17, 2006, on the front sidewalk of an off-campus dorm after he had fallen from a fifth-floor balcony. An autopsy report said Cross had a blood alcohol level of 0.19, more than twice the legal limit for driving in Texas.

Then-fraternity president Chase Bolding, Will Evans and Austin Sherrill were each charged with hazing and furnishing alcohol to minors. Hazing is punishable by a year in jail and furnishing alcohol to minors is punishable by up to six months in jail. Former fraternity vice president Jimmy Berry was charged with failure to report hazing, punishable by up to six months in jail.

Efforts by the Associated Press to reach the four for comment were unsuccessful today, as no telephone listings could be found for them.

According to the affidavits, the hazing included an incident in which Sherrill allegedly touched a hot iron to the face of two pledges, causing minor injuries. The pledges were told to skip classes until their burns healed, the affidavit said.

Last year, three officers of UT’s Lambda Phi Epsilon received probation after a criminal investigation into the death of Phanta “Jack” Phoummarath, a freshman honors student from Houston who was found dead after an off-campus fraternity party Dec. 9, 2005.

Filed Under: Hazing News

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Contact Inquiries

Hank Nuwer

Correspondence: Hank Nuwer at Hnuwer@hanknuwer.com   Phone number upon request.  Available presentations USA, … Email to book a date.

Sons of the Dawn

Sons of the Dawn: A Basque Odyssey: Hank's novel is for teens 11-18 but also meant to be enjoyed by … Read More

Hazing Deaths Database:

… Read More

Suicide allegedly tied to hazing at Nebraska-Lincoln

Here is the link. Rahat Jalil, UNL Lambda Phi Epsilon

Thank you, AFA

New scholarship from Brazil: Hazing at the university and gender violence: a literature integrative review

doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.7213/psicolargum.39.103.AO02 Trotes na universidade e violência de gênero: uma revisão integrativa de literatura Hazing at the university and gender violence: a literature integrative review   Novatadas en la universidad y violencia de género: una revisión integradora de la literatura Adriane Roso https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7471-133X Universidade Federal de Santa Maria (UFSM), adriane.roso@ufsm.br Janine Gudolle de Souza https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6477-4190 […]

A Poland-Union City Love story.

Here is the link. Hank   My wife Gosia earned her Green Card in October 2019. She gave eight-weeks’ notice at her chief accountant job in Poland and shipped what she could to Indiana. “Wait, how did a fellow from Indiana meet a Polish lass,” you may ask? I persuaded Gosia in June of 2015 […]

Archives


Hank Nuwer's Hazing Scholarship Site is proudly powered by WordPress