Author: Hank Nuwer

U.S. troops charged with soldier cruelty
Soldiers accused of hazing Ohio teen who committed suicide, military says
NBC News and news services
updated 4:52 p.m. ET Aug. 21, 2009
WASHINGTON – Four American soldiers have been charged with cruelty and maltreatment of an 19-year-old soldier who committed suicide after being in Iraq for 10 days, the U.S. military told NBC News Friday.
The four Multi-National Division-South soldiers are accused of hazing Private Keiffer P. Wilhelm of Ohio. They abused Wilhelm with excessive physical fitness, said Lt. Col. Kevin Olson, a military spokesman.
One defense official told NBC News that Wilhelm eventually stopped going to public areas to avoid being harassed repeatedly for being overweig
The Fort Bliss soldier locked himself inside a portable toilet and shot himself with a rifle on Aug. 4 in Maysan Province, military officials told NBC. They spoke on condition of anonymity.
Military officials identified the charged officers as Sgt. Enoch Chatman, Staff Sgt. Bob Clements, Sgt. Jarrett Taylor and Spc. Daniel Weber, all of B Troop, 2nd Squadron, 13th Cavalry Regiment from Fort Bliss, Texas.
The four soldiers also are accused of abusing other male soldiers, Olson said.
The accused are part of the first brigade to deploy to Iraq for the new Advise and Assist mission, whose job is to train Iraqi security forces to be better soldiers.
Chatman, of West Covina, Calif., was charged with four counts of cruelty and maltreatment, one count of making a false statement and one count of reckless endangerment. If convicted on all counts, he faces up to 10 years in prison, a dishonorable discharge and forfeiture of pay, the military said.
Clements, of Eastland, Texas, faces four counts of cruelty and maltreatment, three counts of making a false statement, one count of impeding an investigation and one count of reckless endangerment. If convicted on all counts, he faces up to 25 years in prison and a dishonorable discharge, the military said.

Taylor, of Edmond, Okla., was charged with two counts of cruelty and maltreatment, one count of making false statement and one count of reckless endangerment. He faces up to eight years in prison, if convicted on all charges.
Weber, of Frankenmuth, Mich., has been charged with three counts of cruelty and maltreatment, one count of reckless endangerment and one count of impeding an investigation. The charges together carry a nine-year maximum sentence upon conviction.
Multi-National Division-South has headquarters in the southern Iraqi city of Basra.
NBC News Jim Miklaszewski and Courtney Kube contributed to

Charges against a Delta Sigma Theta member and testimony from a student who said she passed blood.

Delta Sigma Theta position on hazing quite clear.

Add this to the resume of John Fox: bad judgment. Spartanburg Herald Journal made no mention of hazing problems and deaths in South Carolina.

The poor rookies didn’t even try to get away.

“Don’t fight it,” running back DeAngelo Williams said. “Don’t fight it.”

They gathered around a goal post and were wrapped up tight, tape stretching across their faces. Then buckets of Gatorade were dumped on them. When the hazing was done, it was a chore just to get out of that tangled mess. Defensive end Everette Brown, the team’s top draft pick, came out of his shorts before he came out of his tape.

“Why do we have to go through that?” defensive tackle Lonnie Harvey asked the coach, who stood there watching the whole thing.

“It’s tradition,” Fox said. “It will continue.”

Story Link: http://www.sanluisobispo.com/news/local/breaking_news/story/822381.html

Posted on Thu, Aug. 20, 2009
Students accused in Cal Poly hazing death appear in court
Nick Wilson
Two Cal Poly students accused in the hazing death of a freshman last year were back in court today for a preliminary hearing.

Haithem Ibrahim and Zacary Ellis are charged for their alleged roles in the alcohol-related death of 18-year-old freshman Carson Starkey in December 2008.

They have pleaded not guilty.

Prosecutor Craig Van Rooyen argued to open the hearing that Ibrahim and Ellis had key roles in providing Starkey with the beer and hard liquor that he drank quickly as part of a traditional drinking event that led to his death.

Fellow fraternity brother Christopher Perkins is on the stand today, testifying against Ibrahim and Ellis in exchange for his immunity from prosecution.

Perkins said he poured out some of his alcohol on a previous fraternity drinking night when he was a pledge because he didn’t want his “big brother” to see any alcohol remaining — which was expected of pledges at this annual event.

Perkins also said that pledges in the fraternity typically weren’t allowed to make eye contact with the pledge educator or communicate with him directly as part of the fraternity’s tradition. Ellis is the alleged pledge educator in December 2008 and Ibrahim was Starkey’s alleged designated big brother who assigned him alcohol to drink.

Perkins’ testimony resumes this afternoon in Judge Michael Duffy’s courtroom.

Ibrahim and Ellis are being charged with the felony violation of hazing causing death and a misdemeanor of furnishing alcohol to a minor causing death.

WILSON: Geoffrey Seefeldt sentenced in school bus hazing case
Staff Reports

The oldest of three varsity baseball players who were charged in connection with an alleged hazing on a Wilson school bus last year was sentenced in secret Tuesday night at Wilson Town Court.

Attorneys said Geoffrey Seefeldt, 19, was spared jail time, though the actual sentence was not released because of Seefeldt’s youthful offender status.

Seefeldt pleaded guilty in June to endangering the welfare of a child, a misdemeanor, which carries a maximum sentence of one year in jail.

Two co-defendents — Colton Sherman and Christopher Sidote, both 18 — were found non guilty July 9 on charges of second-degree hazing and forcible touching after a non-jury trial.

Child endangerment charges against two coaches charged in connection with the case, William Atlas and Thomas Baia, were dropped July 6.

The players were accused of assaulting junior varsity players in the back of a Wilson school bus during a ride back from a game in Niagara Falls on April 17, 2008.

The families of the alleged victims are now suing the Wilson Central School District for damages related to the incident.