Teh One Who Knocks
10-03-2015, 11:46 AM
By Jeremy Gray - Alabama.com
http://i.imgur.com/KFyg55O.jpg
The pledges were told to bring a cooler from the Phi Delta Gamma fraternity house band room, fill it with ice and carry it to a second floor bathroom.
The students -- two 19-year-olds and a 20-year-old -- were then told to take off their socks and shoes, court records state.
Court documents detail how the three pledges came to suffer second and third degree burns that sent them to UAB Hospital and five active members of The University of Alabama fraternity chapter to jail.
Those charged are: Colter K. Anderson, 21, Dallas, Tx.; John Patrick Buckley, 21, Houston, Tx.; Hunter Lee Wagner, 20, Huntsville; Richard E. Markwalter, 20, Huntsville; and Mark Allen Powers, 20, Athens. Powers faces one hazing charge; the other four are charged with three counts each, school spokesman Chris Bryant said.
Messages left with attorneys for Wagner and Powers were not immediately returned. Court records do not list attorneys for the other three.
The pledges were told to stand in the cooler of ice for 15-20 minutes each, the records state. Someone poured salt into the ice, but none of the members admitted to being the one who did it, the records state.
"After a few minutes, fraternity members and the pledges realized (the three) received injuries to their feet from the cold ice and were told to get medical attention," a deposition states. They were treated locally but eventually went to UAB's burn unit.
The deposition says it was Wagner and Markwalter who told the pledges to stand in ice. One of the pledges said he saw Wagner pour the salt into the ice.
Anderson and Buckley were present at some point during the alleged hazing but left and did not report what happened, the report states.
Wagner, Markwalter, Anderson and Buckley all admitted to taking part in the hazing but said they did not mean to hurt the pledges. "Anderson even admitted that he knows this same form of hazing has occurred inside the fraternity house before," a deposition stated.
Powers, the only one of the five suspects charged with one, not three, counts of hazing, allegedly made one of the pledges put his head in the toilet and then flushed it.
That happened after the pledge stood in the ice and went to the "newboy closet" to recover from "frost bite," the report states. Anderson stepped on the pledge's feet and told him to "man up," the report states.
Sometimes called the "salt and ice and challenge," the chemical combination of salt, ice can cause severe, permanent skin damage.
In 2012, a 12-year-old boy in Pittsburgh suffered second degree burns and endured weeks of recovery after having ice and salt applied to his back, according to a CBS News report.
All five were expelled from the fraternity and face misdemeanor charges.
"Phi Gamma Delta has a long-standing prohibition of hazing, and members are instructed on that position early and often, including the consequences of violations. Any member who engages in hazing does so out of defiance of the Fraternity's position and not ignorance of it," the national organization said in a statement Thursday.
"The University of Alabama will not tolerate hazing and takes allegations and incidents of hazing very seriously,'' Dean of Students Tim Hebson said in a prepared statement. "Students who are the victims of, or who become aware of, hazing incidents are strongly encouraged to bring these incidents to our attention."
http://i.imgur.com/KFyg55O.jpg
The pledges were told to bring a cooler from the Phi Delta Gamma fraternity house band room, fill it with ice and carry it to a second floor bathroom.
The students -- two 19-year-olds and a 20-year-old -- were then told to take off their socks and shoes, court records state.
Court documents detail how the three pledges came to suffer second and third degree burns that sent them to UAB Hospital and five active members of The University of Alabama fraternity chapter to jail.
Those charged are: Colter K. Anderson, 21, Dallas, Tx.; John Patrick Buckley, 21, Houston, Tx.; Hunter Lee Wagner, 20, Huntsville; Richard E. Markwalter, 20, Huntsville; and Mark Allen Powers, 20, Athens. Powers faces one hazing charge; the other four are charged with three counts each, school spokesman Chris Bryant said.
Messages left with attorneys for Wagner and Powers were not immediately returned. Court records do not list attorneys for the other three.
The pledges were told to stand in the cooler of ice for 15-20 minutes each, the records state. Someone poured salt into the ice, but none of the members admitted to being the one who did it, the records state.
"After a few minutes, fraternity members and the pledges realized (the three) received injuries to their feet from the cold ice and were told to get medical attention," a deposition states. They were treated locally but eventually went to UAB's burn unit.
The deposition says it was Wagner and Markwalter who told the pledges to stand in ice. One of the pledges said he saw Wagner pour the salt into the ice.
Anderson and Buckley were present at some point during the alleged hazing but left and did not report what happened, the report states.
Wagner, Markwalter, Anderson and Buckley all admitted to taking part in the hazing but said they did not mean to hurt the pledges. "Anderson even admitted that he knows this same form of hazing has occurred inside the fraternity house before," a deposition stated.
Powers, the only one of the five suspects charged with one, not three, counts of hazing, allegedly made one of the pledges put his head in the toilet and then flushed it.
That happened after the pledge stood in the ice and went to the "newboy closet" to recover from "frost bite," the report states. Anderson stepped on the pledge's feet and told him to "man up," the report states.
Sometimes called the "salt and ice and challenge," the chemical combination of salt, ice can cause severe, permanent skin damage.
In 2012, a 12-year-old boy in Pittsburgh suffered second degree burns and endured weeks of recovery after having ice and salt applied to his back, according to a CBS News report.
All five were expelled from the fraternity and face misdemeanor charges.
"Phi Gamma Delta has a long-standing prohibition of hazing, and members are instructed on that position early and often, including the consequences of violations. Any member who engages in hazing does so out of defiance of the Fraternity's position and not ignorance of it," the national organization said in a statement Thursday.
"The University of Alabama will not tolerate hazing and takes allegations and incidents of hazing very seriously,'' Dean of Students Tim Hebson said in a prepared statement. "Students who are the victims of, or who become aware of, hazing incidents are strongly encouraged to bring these incidents to our attention."