Penn State Teke's in trouble
 

Penn State frat charged after woman fell 8 floors

Wednesday, October 16, 2002

Associated Press

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. -- A Penn State University fraternity was charged with illegally providing alcohol to a 20-year-old female student who fell from her eighth-floor apartment window.

Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity was charged yesterday with selling or furnishing alcohol to minors, State College police detective Joe Grego said today.

Natalie Paglione, of Ambler in suburban Philadelphia, was drinking at a TKE party at an apartment near campus on Sept. 8 before she returned to her apartment, authorities said. It was unclear how she managed to fall out of her bedroom window, but police said Paglione had a blood-alcohol level of 0.135 percent, well above the legal limit for driving.

Paglione sustained injuries to her back, arms and legs and had to have a kidney removed at the Milton S. Hershey Medical Center in Hershey. She has since been discharged and was recovering at her home.

TKE president Brad Andrew Nelson, who Grego said was involved in providing the alcohol, did not immediately return a call seeking comment from The Associated Press.

If convicted, the fraternity would likely face a fine, authorities said.
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Thankfully it didn't occur in their house, or they would've been in a lot more trouble legally. The only thing they can really be held responsible for is furnishing alcohol to minors, which isn't too big of a fine. It sucks though :(

The indivduals might be charged and not the fraternty unless it was advertised as a TKE party. If it was an advertised TKE party, then forget the fines, TKE IHQ will crack down on them worse than that.

What's been happening more and more is that both the chapter and individuals are charged. Sometimes the university and national organization are included as well.

It sounds like a minor miracle that the woman wasn't killed -- eight floors is a long way down.

The serious legal liability here isn't going to be the criminal law. That may just turn out to be fines, as the article said. The real pain is going to come when the civil lawsuits come. These guys are almost certainly going to get sued, by the student, or her health insurance provider, or both.

:eek: that's what i was thinking

It's interesting how it was called a TKE Party when it was at someone's apartment...

I don't think most chapters would do an advertised party and then have it at someone's apartment.. But that's just my experience talking.

I'd be willing to bet that it wasn't actually a TKE sponsored party.. just a party where a lot of TKE's were present.

Probably, but alot of people concider that a GLO function anyway. I know VSU states is any more than five members of an peticular GLO are at a function where there is drinking its a party of that org.

I would have agreed with this statement, but then what zntke711 said reminded me of somthing that our president last year about how if 'x' amount of us girls were there, then it would be considered our function. Which is kind of annoying (Also confused me) What if like my roommates and our neighbors (who are also AXO) happened to go to a party at our friends apt who's a GDI, I mean there are 8 of us there... is that our function? I guess lines are shady... :rolleyes:

I would be your function in writing. I am sure after investigation they would not call it your function unless most of your chapter was there.

Thanks,

"Charged" was a bad choice of words on my part. Lawsuits is what I really had in mind.

I am surely going to catch hell for this but......
 

Someone dieing is always a tragedy, I personally believe that, regardless of the law, anyone 20 years old is old enough to handle themselves when they drink and if they can't-that's their p[roblem not someone elses. If you are an adult-and at 20 you are-you shouldn't drink if you aren't going to be responsible about it. I am so sick and tired of our society where everyone blames everyone else for their own mistakes (or the mistakes of their children). No one pushed her out of that window (I am assuming). Now if she got drunk and the guys ran a train on her-they desearve to be sued and jailed b/c no one would consent to that. But nobody shoved her out that window. Those parents should've had a little talk with her before they sent out into the big world. If she had driven srunk and killed a family of five-that -IMO would be soley her responsibility as well. Now that I've offended everyone east and west of the mississippi...... It is terrible.

Re: I am surely going to catch hell for this but......
 

I agree . . . I think it's ridiculous that this is going to be blamed on TKE. If she hadn't gotten the alcohol at their party she would have gotten it somewhere else.

Re: Re: I am surely going to catch hell for this but......
 

And then everyone would be saying "somewhere else" is to blame. Here's the bottom line. The TEKEs did apparantely give her the booze. Whether she fell or was pushed, her judgement probably was impaired. Giving her alcohol is against the law -- whether the law is fair or not.

We absolutely MUST stop putting our organizations in this position. Besides the fact that people are badly hurt or even killed, the liability is huge.

One of the single biggest challenges to the survival of the Greek System is the rapidly rising cost of liability coverage. No organization can live without it, and situations like this one cause the skyrocketing premiums.

As a general matter....

It's pretty well established in law that when someone can cut off the flow of alcohol to a seriously drunk person, they have the duty to do just that.

In this case, it sounds like the alcohol that the students provided at least contributed to the injury that the woman suffered. Sure, some other things were factors -- the woman's emotional state might have been a factor, and the construction of the window she fell from might have been a factor. If she ended up outside that window through her own intentional act, then it sounds like the alcohol was less of a factor, and probably not enough to blame the person who served it at all. But if, drunk and disoriented, she was half-standing on her bed trying to shut the window, slipped, and blew the screen out of a properly-installed window, then it looks like the alcohol was a bigger cause of what happened. Enough to blame the person who served it? That's a harder question. After all, she drank the alcohol, and we don't let people use drunkenness as an excuse for their own negligence. But at some point that duty to cut her off might have kicked in, and the person pouring would share at least some of the blame.

As far as negligently serving her more and more alcohol is concerned, her age doesn't matter. A person can be held negligent for giving car keys to someone the person should know is too intoxicated to drive even if both people are 45.

How much does the bartender/alcohol provider have to know? How drunk does she have to look? That's a question each court struggles with, and I don't know the general standard.

The fundamental point is this: If you are in a position to prevent great harm from happening, and if you ought to be able to foresee that some kind of harm is possible, you'd better do what you can to make sure that what you're doing doesn't help to bring any kind of harm about. (Some states say that the precise harm that occurs has to be foreseeable for the negligent person to be liable, while others only say that some kind of harm had to be foreseeable. In any event, juries decide foreseeability in hindsight, so you'd better cover your behind either way.)

Whether the fraternity as a corporation should be responsible is another question that I'm not even going to try to address here. Suffice it to say that if they get sued, the legal fees they'll have to pay to have the proper work done to get them out of the case will run them several thousand dollars, and that's if they win. The person who pours alcohol for someone who gets severely intoxicated there and hurts himself or herself will pay at least as much to defend the case -- again, if he wins.

Re: Re: Re: I am surely going to catch hell for this but......
 

Oh, I definitely agree with all of those points, and I think that Greeks need to realize that situations like these can be avoided, and that we need to start doing our best to avoid them. I just think it's wrong that Teke is probably going to get sued for this. If the girl had just been drinking in her apartment with her friends and this had happened, would she have sued the person who brought the alcohol over? Probably not. Even if she had been at a non-Greek house party, gotten drunk, and fell off her balcony, I'm not sure that there would be the same threat of a lawsuit pending as there is here.

Don't get me wrong, I absolutely agree with you that we all need to do our part to eliminate situations like this. The Tekes shouldn't have been serving this girl alcohol; it was an irresponsible move on their part, and the consequences of the act were terrible. But I also think that placing the majority of the blame on Teke is unfair, since they weren't even present when she fell, they didn't force her to drink, etc. -- all they did was supply the alcohol which, as I pointed out earlier, could have probably easily been obtained from a number of different sources. People need to start taking individual responsibility. I don't doubt that part of the blame falls on Teke's shoulders here . . . but certainly not all of it, and that is what the lawsuit is going to make it out to look like.

From Fraternal News.

Penn State fraternity charged with giving alcohol to student injured
in fall from window

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. -- A Penn State University fraternity was charged
with illegally providing alcohol to a student who was severely
injured in a fall from her eighth-floor apartment window.

Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity was charged Tuesday with selling or
furnishing alcohol to minors, city police Detective Joe Grego said
Wednesday. Natalie Paglione, 20, had been drinking at a TKE party
near campus before the Sept. 8 accident, authorities said.

It was unclear how she fell from the window, but police said Paglione
had a blood-alcohol level of 0.135 percent, well above the legal
limit for driving.

Paglione, of the Philadelphia suburb of Ambler, suffered back, arm
and leg injuries, and one of her kidneys had to be removed. She has
been released from a hospital.

TKE president Brad Andrew Nelson did not immediately return a call
seeking comment Wednesday. Grego said Nelson was involved in
providing the alcohol.

If convicted, the fraternity could be fined, authorities said. No
preliminary hearing had been scheduled.

Thats an old article. Here is the link to the new one saying to see if its a private party thrown by several TKE members or if it was an actual TKE party.

http://www.collegian.psu.edu/archive...02dnews-05.asp

TKE IHQ suspended them. Apperently it was a chapter function, they better pray they don't get shut down.

http://www.collegian.psu.edu/archive...02dnews-07.asp

They will probably get evicted from their house. State College has some kind of rental/zoning exemption for fraternities so if your charter gets pulled you lose the exemption. SAE is currently in the same boat and they are sueing the town over the rule.

Who gets sued for what -- and who wins is a bigger mystery than our rituals to me.

The rule seems to be, "Let's sue everyone!)

Did you hear about the woman who sued a furniture store because she tripped over an "unruly" child and broke (I think) her ankle?

She won.

The amazing part is that it was HER OWN child she tripped over.

Things like that are the reason that we can't be too careful. Logic sometimes doesn't seem to matter.

They might lose their charter might not they are only suspended at the moment. Not many chapters get shut down for serving to minors. There will have to be other reasons, the publicity might be enough to do it. We will have to see.

SAE got in trouble because of the dance marathon. IFC said they misappropriated funds and kicked them out of IFC. The IFC then sent the town a letter stating that SAE is no longer a fraternity. They are still recognized by SAE International. SAE has lived in their house for about 80 years but the town said they are no longer a fraternity so they wont give them a renters license and their house is sitting empty. SAE is currently has a lawsuit vs. PSU the town and IFC.

If TKE gets kicked out of IFC they will probably get kicked out of their house regardless of the status of their charter and TKE International.

What if they own their house? Or does everyone rent? I know alot of chapters own their house. My chapter does.

oohhh... if a chapter on my campus was "misappropriaing funds" (aka: stealing) from our dance marathon (aka: kids with cancer) i would want to kick them off campus too...

Municipalities can and do regulate what tracts of land can be used for. Through zoning, they regulate what kinds of buildings can be built and what kinds of uses they can be put to if they are built. Many towns and cities have regulations that certain kinds of multiple-occupant dwellings can be used only if the occupying group fulfills certain obligations, and many say that fraternities can occupy houses only if they are recognized by a national organization, the school, or both.

As far as I can tell, this is true whether they own or rent. The fraternity can own a building and still not be able legally to use it as a fraternity house.

As we always advise collegiates, if it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck and walks like a duck, it's a duck. Make your choices and decisions based on that, and you're more than likely going to find that many things we think aren't "our" events actually look like they are. People don't care if it's at an apartment or your house. When you decide join to a GLO, your actions become a reflection on that organization. Is it fair? I can't really answer that, but I believe it is a part of greek life. After all, what's more important? Drinking with your buddies or the brother/sisterhood that you gain from the greek experience? I think that's worth a thought or two :)

Even if you own the house you still need an occupancy permit or renters license. That is why SAE was screwed. From what I remember they own the house and have lived there for about 80 years, and the house is zoned for a fraternity. The town is saying that since they are no longer in IFC they don't qualify even though they are still recognized by their national.

Hoosier posted the original story about SAE at PSU.. I will try to find it and post it.

http://greekchat.com/gcforums/showth...penn+and+state

hey ya'll. . .i go to penn state, so if anyone has any questions about the whole tke thing they can pm me. anyway, one of the reason's it was a "tke" function was because it was at the seniors house. also, the party happened during ifc dry week, so having the party, aside from the fact natalie was served alchol at the party, they are facing sanctions from ifc. we used to do thon with tke and so i know a bunch of the guys. like i said, if anyone has any questions, feel free to pm me.

That drunk ho should know her limits.

Serving alcohol comes with responsibility just like drinking it does. The fact that the drinker fails at her or his responsibility does not absolve the server of responsibility. It may be a smaller responsibility, but it is still there.

Nothing is going to happen with IFC at the school until they see what happens with the investigation..

http://www.collegian.psu.edu/archive...02dnews-04.asp

I go to Penn State.. most of the fraternities here rent their houses since most of them are worth millions of dollars. Unless they are large fraternities with rich alum it's not uncommon to rent houses. However, there is a house *like SAE* that is owned by Phi Sigma Delta Sigma that is just sitting empty until they recharter because their alum own it. It's sad really, the fraternity houses here are so gorgeous. I would love to get my sorority living in one of those, but unfortunately we don't have "sorority houses" here, or atleast not official ones. TKE has a gorgeous house and it'll be a shame if they lose it. Personally, I don't think that they should be charged anymore than serving to a minor. We all know that underage drinking is rampant on this campus, the girl is 20 and can take care of herself. If her friends thought she needed to be babysat I'm sure they wouldn't have invited her in the first place. Plus I'm sure not one sole person was handing out beer all night to watch to see how many she had drank. In the end, it was her fault, the beer wasn't forced down her throat. The only thing TKE did was supply alcohol and it was probably one or two people, not the whole fraternity. Hell, she could have brought her own beer, or drank before hand. The police here love to harrass the fraternities. TKE broke no rules by drinking at an apartment during dry week. During dry week fraternities cannot drink in the common areas of the house, like while on probation. The only functions they can have are regular chapter functions. Okay, I've typed too much. Time for bed. Sorry if none of this made sense, it is after 5am. :eek:

Hey TPASteph ... I couldn't have said it better myself!!:D Cheers to that!

Steph,

First, please take a look at previous posts regarding liability in terms of providing alcohol to someone.

Eupolis wrote:
Serving alcohol comes with responsibility just like drinking it does. The fact that the drinker fails at her or his responsibility does not absolve the server of responsibility. It may be a smaller responsibility, but it is still there.

Second, maybe she could have bought her own beer, but the chapter (or members) broke the LAW in providing beer to her -- whether it technically broke the "dry week" rules or not. She is under the legal drinking age.

If, however, it is the case that she brought her own beer, TKE is under NO liability because they did not purchase the alcohol for her.

You would think that, but I kind of remember a fraternity in Virginia that was busted having a BYO party. I dont remember the exact charge but were busted because they provided a place for underage drinkers to party.