Hank Nuwer, Author; Hazing Deaths Database

Thursday, September 7, 2006

Frat adviser alleges extortion

Link to Press-Citizen here

Excerpt: An adviser for a fraternity that’s suing the University of Iowa and one of its vice presidents testified that UI would not recognize the chapter until it pleaded guilty to hazing charges.

“After we negotiated an agreement, we were being extorted into pleading guilty or we would not be recognized,” Phi Delta Theta local adviser Steve Snyder testified Wednesday in Johnson County District Court. “It was a constant pattern. We would negotiate a settlement and at the last minute we would be told we would have to sign this.”

Phi Delta Theta sued the university and UI vice president for student services Phillip E. Jones alleging a tape recording used in a hazing and alcohol violation investigation was illegally obtained and should not have been used.

A pledge who claims he was burned with cigarettes has left the University of Alabama and its Sigma Phi Epsilon brothers. The national, known for the integrity of its long-existing Balanced Man programs, took immediate action. Story link is here

Link with photo is here

Link with photo is here

Here is a snippet and link to the Daily Pennsylvanian

 

College senior E. Martyn Griffen has taken further measures against two Penn individuals who he says beat and branded him in an alleged hazing incident last fall.

Griffen filed a private complaint that now has the two facing criminal charges from the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office.

These charges are in addition to a lawsuit that Griffen filed against the two fraternity brothers, as well as the national and Penn chapters of the Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity.

College senior Kelechi Okereke and Education graduate student Lionel Anderson-Perez will attend criminal hearings Nov. 22, and the civil lawsuit filed against them will likely be put on hold until after all criminal proceedings conclude, Griffen’s lawyer Robert Sachs said.

Griffen alleges that the two lacerated him with a rubber band and severely beat his legs during pledging in the spring.

Anderson-Perez is criminally charged with harassment and simple assault. Kelechi is also charged with harassment.