Hank Nuwer, Author; Hazing Deaths Database

Moderator: The high number of serious incidents connected to Lambda Phi Epsilon has put this particular group on the radar screen of school administrators and journalists as a potential hazard to prospective members. The serious incidents in the press are mounting with this group. Remember, this is an organization founded only in 1981. Not all Lambda Phi Epsilon chapters are problematic, of course, but way too many chapters have been connected with brutal hazing.

Here is the latest from two Buffalo schools with members charged and pledges hospitalized.

The Buffalo News

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05/12/09 07:08 AM
Six remain free on bail in fraternity hazing

Six local college students who were charged with assault after allegedly taking part in a hazing ritual were allowed to remain free on bail Monday while an investigation continues.

City Judge James A. W. McLeod scheduled further proceedings for Kong M. Siu, 21, of Bayside; Ronald Lin, 21, of Brooklyn; Qiyvan Zhang, 22, of Groton; Brian B. Shim, 22, of Syosett; Andrew Lui, 21, of Brooklyn; and Ho Lee, 22, of Woodbury. All have been charged with felony second-degree assault and misdemeanor hazing.

The six are said to be members of Lambda Phi Epsilon fraternity. They are accused of paddling three victims and forcing them to drink alcohol until they lost consciousness April 26 in a Winspear Avenue home.

Edward C. Cosgrove, attorney for all six defendants, confirmed that all six have been suspended from class until the criminal case is resolved. Five of the defendants are from the University at Buffalo. The sixth, Shim, in a junior in D’Youville’s nursing program.

According to court documents, the victims were found unconscious in a locked upstairs bedroom, hospitalized for two days at Erie Medical Center and treated for “dehydration, alcohol poisoning, blood in urine and severe pain, swelling and severe bruising to buttocks.”

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Indian River County schools
Counsel rests case in Sebastian River baseball coach’s appeal

By Laurel Pfahler (Contact) INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — Counsel for the Indian River County School Board rested its case Thursday morning in an administrative hearing in which former Sebastian River baseball coach George Young is appealing a three-day unpaid suspension from teaching.

Young lost his coaching job and served the suspension almost a year ago as a result of an alleged hazing incident involving members of the Sharks baseball team while staying in a hotel during a spring break tournament in March of 2008.

The 14-year coach was disciplined after Indian River School District investigators concluded three Sebastian River baseball players held down a teammate and placed a plastic 2-liter bottle at or near a player’s rectum.

Before resting, attorney Wayne Helsby, of Allen, Norton & Blue, P.A., in Winter Park, called four more witnesses to the stand Thursday morning on behalf of the school district, including Sebastian River Principal Peggy Jones, Superintendent Harry La Cava, Assistant Principal Billy Wilson and District Executive Director of Human Resources Kevin Browning.

Jones was the district’s first witness of Day 2 in the hearing and detailed the order of events regarding the school’s investigation. She also provided reason for her decision to remove him from his coaching duties, citing that he waited a week after hearing an incident might have occurred and that after Young heard about the possibility of a bottle being involved, he did not attempt to contact her.

“When he learned of the bottle, he should have come to me,” Jones said.

La Cava said he was not a part of the investigation process but received periodic updates and used the investigation report for the basis of his decision to recommend to the board a suspension of Young.

Wilensky asked if La Cava remembered the information he provided La Cava regarding what the attorney called misquoted information in witness statement reports. He said Young was sourced to a quote that the victim’s mother said in reference to the victim’s parents and Young’s original decision not to discuss the bottle when reporting the incident.

La Cava said he took the information into consideration, though Wilensky pointed out that he still used pieces of that incorrect information in his agenda notes prior to Young’s appeal to the school board.

“There was knowledge of a bottle, and he didn’t say anything,” La Cava said.

Young’s counsel, Mark Wilensky of Dubiner & Wilensky, P.A., in West Palm Beach, called two witnesses out of turn, with the court’s approval, prior to the district’s final witnesses because of concerns the witnesses would be unavailable after Thursday morning.

Parent Thomas Whittington Jr. and his son, Thomas Whittington III, a member of the baseball team, testified that Young called a meeting the morning following the incident to find out what happened, but no players came forward. Thomas Whittington III, a senior this year, also said Young addressed t he team prior to leaving for the tournament and told the players they “need to represent the high school in a good, disciplined manner.”

Following a lunch break, Wilensky called parent Jim Mueller, a parent chaperon on the trip, to the stand, and he corroborated what the Whittington’s both said. He also said he heard of some possible “wrestling” the night of the incident and told Young he would check it out, but everything was quiet.

Wilensky has several more witnesses to call, but both counsel expect the hearing to conclude by noon Friday.

By Jamie Ruff

Published: May 7, 2009

FARMVILLE—A sorority founded more than a century ago at Longwood University is closing its chapter there in the aftermath of allegations of hazing and underage drinking, officials said.

The closing of the Alpha Chapter of Zeta Tau Alpha comes less than a month after it had been reinstated with sanctions for policy violations.

“All of Zeta Tau Alpha is deeply disappointed that the members of Alpha Chapter have shown disregard for the standards of conduct and expectations of behavior that our fraternity values,“ national president Laura Ladewig Mauro said in a statement.

“Closing any chapter is a painful decision; closing your first chapter is difficult beyond words,“ Mauro said. “But all chapters must abide by the ideals and principles of our sisterhood if they wish to remain a part of our organization.“

On May 18-19, representatives from ZTA International will conduct hearings with current chapter members that could result in expulsion from the sorority. At the same time, Longwood will conduct an administrative hearing regarding the chapter.

Longwood said in a statement that it hoped ZTA would be able to return to the campus in the future.

Longwood claims to be the only college in the country where as many as four national sororities were founded. The others are Kappa Delta, Sigma Sigma Sigma and Alpha Sigma Alpha.

LINCOLN, Neb. (CN) – Sigma Chi Fraternity at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln subjected a pledge to violent hazing, including being sodomized by a stripper while others watched, and other degrading, assaultive and racist actions, the pledge claims in Lancaster County Court. He claims that pledges were repeatedly threatened not to report the assaults and degradation to police or to “Greek Affairs.”
The former pledge, a minor at the time, sued nine individuals, the Sigma Chi Building Corp., Alpha Epsilon Chapter of Sigma Chi at University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Sigma Chi Corp., and Sigma Chi Fraternity.

Moderator: the Utah State case continues. HN

USU student pleads guilty to supplying alcohol to minor, hazing charge dropped
Published: Wednesday, May 6, 2009 11:53 p.m.

LOGAN — Another one of the Utah State University students charged in connection with the alcohol poisoning death of fraternity pledge Michael Starks has reached an agreement with prosecutors.

Whitney Katherine Miller, 19, pled guilty to unlawful supply of alcohol to a minor, a class A misdemeanor, during a change of plea hearing Wednesday, according to court records. During the hearing prosecutors agreed to drop a hazing charge against Miller, court records indicate.

Judge Thomas Willmore set Miller’s sentencing for June 15.

Starks, 18, died after participating in an initiation ceremony for the then-USU chapter of Sigma Nu. The initiation involved Starks and another pledge being “kidnapped” by the Chi Omega sorority women. An affidavit of probable cause states the pledges were stripped down to their boxers and painted in USU school colors.

Sometime during the activity, they began drinking, prosecutors say. They returned to the fraternity house already heavily intoxicated, and a few hours later, Starks was found unconscious and not breathing.

Starks was pronounced dead at a hospital shortly afterward.

Grant Arthur Barney, 22, pleaded guilty last month to obstructing justice, a class B misdemeanor, and was sentenced Monday to serve eight days in jail and pay a $1,025 fine. Barney will also be on probation for one year and will be required to perform 100 hours of community service.