Author: Hank Nuwer

All: Nebraska is again in news over hazing law–most interesting. Read the challenge.

UNL frat members in court on hazing charges

* Story

BY MELISSA LEE / Lincoln Journal Star | Posted: Thursday, August 27, 2009 6:10 pm

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* Related: UNL suspends Sigma Chi fraternity following hazing allegations
* Related: UNL fraternity members cited for hazing, alcohol

One member of Sigma Chi fraternity at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln pleaded no contest to a hazing charge Thursday, while the attorney for another argued in a pre-trial hearing the six hazing complaints leveled against his client were too vague to be properly defended.

Both appeared in Lancaster County Court before Judge Gale Pokorny.

First, Pokorny found Jonathan Knudsen, 21, of Grand Island guilty of hazing and scheduled a pre-sentencing investigation for Oct. 30.

Hazing is a Class II misdemeanor punishable by up to six months in jail and a $1,000 fine.

Knudsen was one of nine Sigma Chi members to be cited during a UNL police investigation into the fraternity, which has been suspended since April.

Police began investigating Sigma Chi after a former pledge came forward in February and said he and other pledges had been subjected to repeated hazing from fall 2008 to early 2009.

Among other claims, the pledge alleged he and other Sigma Chi hopefuls had been forced to drink alcohol until they vomited and were verbally assaulted and paddled.

The pledge also alleged he had been sodomized by a stripper holding a sex toy during an initiation party, an account no other pledge could corroborate.

No sexual assault charges have resulted from the investigation.

Three Sigma Chi members already have been found guilty of procuring alcohol for a minor, and one was found guilty of procuring and hazing.

Also Thursday, a pre-trial hearing was held for Kyle Humphrey, 22, of Omaha, charged with procuring alcohol for a minor and six counts of hazing.

Humphrey’s attorney, Korey Reiman of Lincoln, argued in court the hazing complaints against his client were too vague.

Prosecutors identified alleged victims only by their initials, and the hazing incidents are alleged to have occurred over such a long period of time that Reiman said it seems he’s being asked to defend Humphrey against every alleged hazing incident at Sigma Chi from fall 2008 to early 2009.

That’s unreasonable, Reiman said – especially considering Humphrey had no involvement in some incidents, notably the alleged sexual assault.

“(Prosecutors) shouldn’t be able to just throw out everything that happened and hope something sticks,” Reiman said in an interview.

But Deputy County Attorney Amy Jacobsen said in court she plans to show Humphrey “aided and abetted” repeated hazing at Sigma Chi by telling pledges they would be kicked out of the fraternity if they did not participate in certain initiation activities. Jacobsen also said she was prepared to identify the alleged victims by their full names.

Reiman requested a change of venue for Humphrey’s trial, saying the high volume of media coverage of the Sigma Chi case may hurt his client’s right to a fair trial.

Jacobsen contended significant media coverage alone wasn’t grounds to change venues, and said the request was premature until attorneys have the chance to question potential jurors to find out how much they actually know about the case.

Pokorny took the matter under advisement.

Another Sigma Chi member, Michael Classen, 22, of Omaha, also was due in court Thursday for a hearing, but Pokorny moved the hearing to Sept. 11. Classen has pleaded not guilty to charges of hazing and procuring alcohol for a minor.

The New Times link

Two frat members headed to trial for hazing as judge warns others
BY ROBERT A. McDONALD

A little more than an hour after he warned defense lawyers that calling their clients’ fraternity brothers to testify might put them in legal jeopardy, a San Luis Obispo judge found there was enough evidence to try two Cal Poly students for the hazing death of Sigma Alpha Epsilon pledge Carson Starkey.
 
 Haithem Ibrahim and Zacary Ellis are facing felony hazing charges in connection with the death of Starkey, an 18-year-old Cal Poly freshman from Austin, Texas, who died last December from alcohol poisoning after attending a booze-fueled fraternity initiation. According to the autopsy report, Starkey had a blood alcohol level of more than five times the legal limit. 
 
On the final day of the preliminary hearing Aug. 25, defense attorneys wanted to call a number of fraternity members and pledges who were present on the night of the incident, but Judge Michael Duffy warned the men they should talk to a lawyer before testifying.
 
“I am compelled to tell them that by testifying, they might be subjecting themselves to prosecution,” said Duffy, to a suddenly tense courtroom.
 
The 2006 anti-hazing law that Ibrahim and Ellis are charged with violating states, “Any person who personally engages in hazing that results in death or serious bodily injury” can be prosecuted. The judge implied that any frat members who encouraged pledges to drink that night could potentially be charged under the broad language of the law.
 
After meeting with the judge in his chambers, the defense lawyers decided not to call the additional fraternity members. Wallace Joseph Luke IV, a pledge, testified that he did not feel pressured to drink that night and that Ellis told him to “slow down and take it easy” after people began to throw up.
 
Other witnesses, however, described an atmosphere in which Starkey and others were encouraged to drink heavily.
 
After Starkey’s hearing, Sigma Alpha Epsilon members gathered outside the courtroom around Richard Conway, Ellis’ attorney, asking whether they should worry about being prosecuted.
 
“They are just jerking with you,” said Conway. “But you guys should talk to an attorney.”
 
Ibrahim and Ellis are scheduled to be arraigned Sept. 17.
 
This is the second case to go to trial under the state anti-hazing law. The first was against three Chico fraternity brothers who were accused of misdemeanor criminal hazing for running pledges through a physically strenuous initiation rite. All three were acquitted Aug. 25.

Three found not guilty in hazing case
By TERRY VAU DELL – Staff Writer
Posted: 08/26/2009 12:18:46 AM PDT

OROVILLE — Three former Chico fraternity officers were acquitted Tuesday by a Butte County jury of misdemeanor criminal hazing.
It was one of the first cases to go to trial in California under an anti-hazing statute passed by the Legislature in the wake of an unrelated initiation rite that claimed the life of Chico State University fraternity pledge Matthew Carrington in 2005.
In the current case, three officers of the now-defunct Beta Theta Pi fraternity in Chico, Christopher David Bizot, 23, Matthew William Krupp and Michael Francis Murphy, both 22 at the time of the allegations, were accused of subjecting pledges to strenuous calisthenics and immersion into an icy bath tub as part of an initiation rite in April 2007.
The only two pledges called by the prosecution during the trial, both testified they never felt their health was in any danger during the fraternity rituals.
It took the Butte County Superior Court jury of nine women and three men slightly less than three hours Tuesday to acquit the trio of the misdemeanor hazing charge, which could have carried up to one year in jail and a $1,000 fine.
Bizot was also found not guilty of a separate charge of obstructing or delaying Chico State University police officers in their investigation.
Jury foreman Linda Klein of Oroville said the jury basically agreed with the defense that the fraternity activities “were not likely to cause serious bodily injury” — the legal standard for conviction under

the new criminal hazing law.
One male juror went as far as to tell lawyers in the case that he felt the trial was “a waste of taxpayers’ money.”
Deputy district attorney Michael Sanderson said afterwards he felt the two years it took to bring the case to trial affected the memories of the two fraternity witnesses, whom he asserted had “minimized” their testimony concerning the initiation rites.
In his closing remarks to the jury, Bizot’s lawyer, Kevin Sears, said while he understood the reason for passing the criminal hazing statute, “this was a very poor case to test this new law.”
At one point last year, some 13 Beta Theta Pi pledges had agreed to accept $1 apiece from each of the three fraternity officers as part of a “civil compromise” in return for the criminal charges being dropped.
As part of the deal, the pledges had signed declarations stating that they never felt endangered by the forced calisthenics or ice baths, euphemistically called “Beta Hot Tubs.”
But a local judge refused to honor the agreement, ruling such a civil settlement was an improper attempt to “circumvent” Matt’s Law, the criminal hazing statute passed by the Legislature in memory of Carrington, who had died after being forced to drink excessive amounts of water during an initiation ritual for another Chico fraternity in 2005.
No mention of the proposed civil agreement or the pledge’s affidavits were allowed during Tuesday’s jury trial.
Two former Beta Theta Pi pledges, Anthony Maggiore and Gregory Hollingshead, testified under a government subpoena that they were made to do pushups, sit-ups and the “army crawl” to gain admittance to the fraternity.
The pair also said pledges were made to stand in a tub of cold water while holding a large block of ice in their hands and to lower themselves down whenever their pledge partner incorrectly answered a question concerning fraternity history.
But under questioning by defense lawyers, Sears, Dane Cameron and Michael Erpino, the pair said that as standout high school athletes, they knew the Chico fraternity had a reputation for athletic prowess and had pledged it for that reason.
At no time did they say they were ever injured or felt their health was endangered during the initiation rites.
Hollingshead recalled “shivering” in the frigid tub, but he and the other pledges had been immediately taken to a heated room and given blankets and towels to warm up afterwards, he told the jury.
Corinne Beck, the campus police detective who investigated the case, testified that when initially questioned, the fraternity’s then-president Bizot, denied pledges were required to do anything more than clean up the Chico fraternity house and research fraternity lore.
She said when confronted later with some of the pledges’ statements, Bizot admitted to taking part in the initiation rituals.
According to the jury foreman, jurors did not believe Bizot’s conduct delayed or obstructed the hazing investigation.
Bizot, who like Murphy, has since graduated from Chico State, declined to comment following Tuesday’s jury acquittals, as did Krupp, who recently earned an associate’s degree from Butte College.
“The jury got it right in this case,” said Murphy’s lawyer, Erpino. “They looked at the evidence and the code section and looked at what was needed to be proved, and it wasn’t proved.”

Story Link:
http://www.mindanaotimes.com.ph/?p=3175

INVESTIGATORS of Homicide and Arson Section of Bunawan Police Precinct are now scouring for evidence from the crime scene where a 19-year-old was allegedly killed in a fraternity initiation rites.
In a report from Bunawan Police Precinct reaching the Investigation and Detective Management Section of Davao City Police Office, the victim’s uncle confirmed that Karl Anthony Gaudicos, 19, was killed in a hazing.
Based on the statement of Rudy Tangtang Sebaldo gathered by SPO4 Jesus Branzuela, investigator-in-charge of the case, Gaudicos was last seen alive when he talked to his classmate at Holy Cross of Davao College inside the victim’s house in Barangay Gredu, Panabo City the night before he was found dead last Friday afternoon.
The report said the victim invited his classmate to join him during the initiation rites.
The investigator said hazing was established based on circumstantial evidence but he is still looking into the background of the fraternity and its members.
In the earlier report of the Bunawan Police Precinct, security guards of the San Pedro Hospital called 911 after a patient was rushed at the hospital, sustaining several bruises and contusions on  both legs. Gaudicos died after a few hours at the hospital and his body now lies at Angel Funeral Homes along F. Torres Street.
Responding members of Bunawan police accosted three persons to their station for investigation. But the three, who claimed not to  know the victim’s identity and that they merely brought him to the hospital, were later freed.
Written by: Lao , Guy Lorenzo
Wednesday, 26 August 2009

http://www.asianetindia.com/news/cops-book-6-including-sfi-leaders-ragging_72791.html

Excerpt: “In a swift action, the police today managed to book six students including two SFI leaders in connection with ragging a deaf and dumb student Nandakishor, after TV channels flashed image of the 23 year old admitted to Pavaratti block …”