Fourteen members of the Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity, which is unaffiliated with Boston University, are scheduled to appear in Brighton District Court for a hearing following an alleged hazing incident on Monday, officials said.
A court hearing was scheduled for May 7, said Boston Police Department spokeswoman Nicole Grant. Complaints were filed against 14 suspects for hazing, failure to report hazing and assault & battery.
When officers responded to a call for a loud party early Monday morning, they entered to find five BU students in their underwear, doused in condiments and beer, duct-taped together in the basement, according to the police report.
The 14 suspects will have to proceed with the hearing in Brighton District Court as well as judicial affairs at Boston University, said BU spokesman Colin Riley.
Riley could not confirm that the 14 suspects were all BU students, but said most, if not all, attend the university.
If there is a violation of the Code of Student Responsibilities, the school will then decide on the sanctions.
“We are going to ask each one of the students to come to Judicial Affairs to determine if they are culpable and we will sanction them accordingly,” said Dean of Students Kenneth Elmore. “We will treat them as individuals.”
Each student will be dealt with on a case-by-case basis, Riley said.
“The courts have no relevance on what will happen to the students at school,” Riley said. “The two do not have anything to do with each other. We will decide what action, if any, to take once the students have had the opportunity to be heard by Judicial Affairs.” Three of the 14 suspects will face complaints of Keeper of a Disorderly House, according to the BPD blog.
The owners had already reported problems with the tenants vandalizing the building and are now seeking to have the tenants evicted after this incident, according to the blog.
The five victims, confirmed as BU students, have been uncooperative with the police, Riley said.
The victims declined medical attention and rides back to campus after the incident, according to the police report.
Since the fraternity was not officially registered at BU, the school cannot take action in regards to the group.
The AEPi national chapter was not available for a comment.
Gil • Apr 15, 2012 at 11:00 pm
Robert: That’s the difference between your generation and Brians (for argument sake – GenX vs. GenY, or class of ’90-’06 vs ’07+) – keyword in Brian’s response was “sensitive” – all Americans are getting more and more sensitive. It’s shows a weakening of persona and I’m with you on that one… going through hazing makes you a stronger person – both for a Frat, on a sports team, and in the Military (and I have been through all 3). HOWEVER, everyone has their own line, and apparently, in this case, for that pledge class, it was crossed.
nick • Apr 12, 2012 at 1:50 pm
Why is it that the Freep regularly publishes names of student who are charged with minor posession charges, etc, but it won’t publish the names of students who abducted, beat, and humiliated others?
george • Apr 15, 2012 at 10:43 pm
because they’re a joke of a newspaper and only publish rubbish. they don’t actually care about accuracy. reference the april fools’ edition for evidence.
Brian • Apr 12, 2012 at 11:52 am
“You’re in college, you’re supposed to screw up, get in trouble, get arrested” — are you serious, Robert? Please, don’t send your children to BU.
Hazing — in this case, coupled with physical assault — is unacceptable. It is coercive and destructive both to the victims and the perpetrators who feel compelled to continue the tradition. One only needs look at the Dartmouth exposé published in Rolling Stone a few weeks back.
Tying half-naked men together, beating them, and dousing them in God-Knows-What is not acceptable. And just because BU ignored it when you were in College does not mean it was acceptable then. What’s changed is that we’ve become much more sensitive to the dangers inherent in Bullying and Hazing, and we expect people to live by stronger codes of ethics and morals than the ones you espouse.
I am seriously discouraged by your naive understanding of what College is supposed to be, and I am certain that the registered Greek organizations would have quite a lot to say by your statement that it’s an integral part of fraternity life.
Robert Tamton • Apr 12, 2012 at 10:52 am
Class of 1996 here and what happened to the BU we used to know? Sure I’m a lot older than you but when has this bubble surrounded the BU student? You’re in college, you’re supposed to screw up, get in trouble, get arrested, find yourself and find your direction. Hazing is a part of the Fraternity life, we all know that, we all did it and we all accepted it. IT goes on and will continue to go on unless all these cry-babies complain about it. I am sick of reading all these students being outraged about this, get over yourselves and get a life.
John Burns • Apr 15, 2012 at 9:28 pm
Well, then I hope these “cry-babies” keep at it! I’d love to see the normalization of assault go away. And I’m sure many people in greek life would like to shed the poor image. For whom is assault good for?