Moderator: Back in mid-November, a pledge was hospitalized for a concussion and lacerations needing stitching. Police charged Andrew Nemes with battery and hazing. That case has not yet come to trial.
Here is the link to the Huffington Post
In addition to police proceedings, Phi Kappa Psi will shut its doors on Jan. 1 to begin a five semester suspension. It will then be put on inactive status. It could be five years before the fraternity is allowed back on campus.
Vice President of Student Affairs Ken Gray said in a news release, “we need to make clear that hazing will not be tolerated and if the members can’t exhibit the kind of behavior expected, the chapter will be shut down entirely.”
“Phi Kappa Psi has a zero-tolerance policy when it comes to hazing and holds the safety and well-being of our members as our top priority,” Phi Kappa Psi national Executive Director Shawn Collingsworth. “West Virginia Alpha has jeopardized that by participating in activities that aim to humiliate or harm new members and it will not be tolerated.”
Update 12:23 My friend and colleague David Westol succinctly explains what is going on procedurally below with the trial’s delay until January. Thank you: A motion for a DV (Directed Verdict) is standard in criminal cases, just as it is in civil cases, although the burden of proof is different. The concept is simple: it gives the defense in a criminal case the opportunity to say, “Your honor, the evidence submitted by the prosecution, taken in the most favorable light to the (state), does not set forth sufficient evidence to justify a guilty verdict. Therefore, the trial must end at this point since the prosecution has put forth all of its evidence”
Moderator: If there is one thing, adults say over and over in high school and college hazing incidents is that “boys will be boys.” This time the attorney for embattled Maine West Coach used that argument to convince a judge to grant a stay until January
Sun-Times excerpt below.
Then, before even putting on a defense, lawyer Todd Pugh asked Cook County Judge Jeffrey L. Warnick to find Divincenzo not guilty of sanctioning a hazing culture among his players in the Northwest suburbs.
“These were definitely boys,” said Pugh, who appealed to Warnick’s personal knowledge that boys sometimes do “gross, disgusting” things.
And in an unusual move, the judge chose to put Divincenzo’s trial on hold until Jan. 8 to consider the request made after prosecutors rested their case.
Warnick’s decision could rest upon whether Divincenzo was required under Illinois’ Abused and Neglected Child Reporting Act to report the alleged hazing to the state’s Department of Children and Family Services.
If he rules against Divincenzo, 37, of Elk Grove Village, the coach would still have an opportunity to put on a defense. He is charged with misdemeanor battery, hazing and failure to report abuse.
Several current and former Maine West soccer players have now testified about the apparent cycle of hazing on the varsity team. But Divincenzo’s lawyers say he knew nothing about it.
Generally, the “initiations” involved tackling a player, giving him a wedgie and sodomizing him with fingers or sticks.
One player said he was only poked in the “butt cheek,” though, and another testified Thursday his teammates simply punched him repeatedly.
Many characterized it as simple horseplay, but one boy said he limped afterward and another said he later felt pain while bending over.
Assistant State’s Attorney Margaret Ogarek said Divincenzo was responsible for the boys’ behavior because he created an environment that allowed the alleged hazing to go on for years.
She also said it’s “quite frankly, unbelievable” that Divincenzo didn’t know what was happening in his soccer program. One boy said Divincenzo said, “Welcome to the team,” after one less violent incident.
Others said he ordered the varsity team to apologize and do 100 push-ups after a more serious Sept. 26, 2012, incident that prompted a criminal investigation into the hazing. Maine West administrators said they learned what happened two days later, from the family of a freshman player.
No one at the school told DCFS until Oct. 2, 2012, lawyers said Thursday.
Finally, Ogarek underscored the testimony of former freshman players who said Divincenzo earlier told them he’d have the varsity team “take their thumbs and stick it up our butt” if they performed poorly in a drill.
And the excerpt–
“Two teens charged in relation to an alleged hazing incident in Lanigan had their charges stayed by the Crown this week.
Brayden Braun and Kyle Ekstrom, both 18, and seven youths whose identities are protected by the Youth Criminal Justice Act, still face charges and are expected to enter a plea in Humboldt provincial court on Jan. 27.
In total, nine youths and the two 18-year-old men were charged in September after area teens were paddled and covered in eggs, chocolate syrup and flour.”
This was a complicated hazing incident. The “Hazing” also has elements of sexual harassment and, though it is military hazing, it also has elements of degrading occupational hazing. Glad the Navy finds such behavior wrong. Now get rid of the Chief’s ceremony, huh, Navy? –Opinion by Moderator Hank Nuwer
The action against Cmdr. Kenneth Rice, executive officer of the USS Jason Dunham, and Master Chief Petty Officer Stephen Vandergrifft, the vessel’s top warrant officer, was announced Friday, NBC News reported.
Officials said that on Oct. 15 a chief petty officer ordered 19 women to clean out two non-functioning toilets on the Dunham, which is based in Norfolk, Va. Thirteen of the women were told to march to the dock carrying buckets of human waste and to dump it in two portable toilets.
Lt. Cmdr. Reann Mommsen, a spokeswoman for US Fleet Forces Command, said some of the women were not supplied with proper protective equipment for the job. She also said that the waste could have been disposed of on board the Dunham and ordering the women to walk it to the pier was hazing.
Cmdr. Michael Meredith, the Dunham’s commanding officer, only learned of the incident on Oct. 21 and acted properly once he was told, officials say. Officials said the charges against Rice and Vandergrifft include failing to notify Meredith.
Rice and Vandergrifft were convicted in non-judicial proceedings...