Remember the local GLO on MTV that ate the campus fish?
 

New Charges Filed In MTV Fish-Killing Case

UCSC's Midas Stolen, Killed, Eaten Last Year

March 12, 2004

LOS ANGELES -- New charges have been filed in the koi fish killing case at UC Santa Cruz.


UCSC frat boy Matthew Cox pleaded guilty Friday in Santa Cruz to misdemeanor grand theft and misdemeanor vandalism charges. He faces a maximum sentence of two years in prison.

But now, reports indicate that two more young men face the same charges in connection with the catching and killing of Midas, the prized fish at UC Santa Cruz.


The Santa Cruz County District Attorney's office said Jonathan Bermudez and Jordan Trigg were the drivers of the vehicles that went to the college to get the fish.

Midas was removed from the campus pond, killed and eaten last year during the filming of MTV's reality show, "Fraternity Life."

Bermudez was arraigned Friday and authorities are still trying to get in touch with Trigg to make him aware of the charges he faces.

A fourth man, Casey Loop, was a no show in court Friday.

I thought the fish was named something else??? :p

Let the boys get what they deserve.

...with a little tarter sauce :D

It's just a damned fish.

Tuna anyone?

honestly
 

That was a stupid thing to do, but if they stole a fish out of your backyard and ate it-what could possibly be the consequences?
1) tresspassing-misdemeaner
2) petty theft-misdemeaner
3) fishing without a license-misdemeaner

It is stupid to be facing 2 years of jail for this. I doubt they will get anything more than a fine and maybe probation.

Stupid thing to do, but worth all this hoopla-hardly.

Re: honestly
 

You just mentioned THREE misdemeanors! If they are in a 3 strike rule state, three misdemeanors equals a felony. With a felony, the rules of sentencing change drastically.

Re: honestly
 

I think it has more to do with the fact that the fish was school property and so it's disrepectful to the school and whatnot. I don't think they'd be making such a big deal out of it if they had just taken a fish from a pond somewhere, unless, of course, the pond in question had been private property.

Re: Re: honestly
 

California does have a 3 strikes law but its 3 strikes law does not turn 3 misdemeanors into a felony for sentencing purposes. The propriety of 3 strikes put aside, the law was supposed to sweep career criminals off the street by mandating sentences of 25 years to life, without possibility of parole, for anyone with two "strikes" -- serious or violent felony convictions -- convicted of any new felony. It also doubles prison terms for anyone convicted of a second violent or serious offense.

There is some flexibility to the application of the law too. For example, Grand Theft is usually considered a violent felony, but I was prosecuting a preliminary hearing on a guy who committed petty theft with a prior which becomes GT. He had 2 previous strikes (one for a drug crime and another for PT with a prior). I believe that when his case got to the superiour court he was offered a deal so that he didn't get a third strike for price tag swapping on a blanket that was 4 dollars. Today, prosecutors actually have the option to file or not file under the 3 strikes law.

Re: Re: Re: honestly
 

Thanks for the info!

Yeah Lawyers have really messed up the system . .

Why wouldn't this just be a campus issue dealt with by judical?

Hope it tasted good on the way down, because this sounds like something that could keep repeating on you!! Oh man, that was bad! :D I bet the kid does no time.

Is this a very reputable publication? I would call the term "frat boy" editorializing considering it's context.

But that's just me............

Wild man Stan, where you been hiding Dude?:(

I am sure since it is a Fish From a higher School of Knowledge, It must have been a special Fish!:confused: But arent they all:confused:

While Stupid, (Yes It Was), I hope they enjoyed it as it will taste a lot more bitter if it hasnt already!;)

Hell, used to try to catch the Huge Gold Fish at the Lamar, Mo. Power station in a pool built for them! :D

Wonder How they would have tasted!;) Especially after I got my ass beat by everyone in the neighborhood!:(

I'm not sure where Hoosier got this article from, but the local newspaper here in Santa Cruz has a tendency to throw the "frat boy" term around. I believe that the article in the local paper did use the term frat boy. UCSC and the surrounding community is extremely anti-greek.

Sentencing - and MTV Tapes Shown
 

On Friday, April 16 KSBW, an NBC affiliate, reported on the sentencing of two of the men in the koi incident -- community service and some substance abuse counseling. What's also interesting is that tapes made by the MTV "Fraternity Life" crew were shown for the first time, in which one guy is shown with the fish, the fish is later seen being grilled, and then it's shown being eaten.

MTV evidently doesn't always bring out the very best in people. But maybe we already knew that. :)

Story at

http://www.theksbwchannel.com/news/3013973/detail.html

This was Page One of the local section in today's Chronicle.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...AGCC66R6F1.DTL

SANTA CRUZ COUNTY
Pair who killed Goldie sentenced to service
Court showed tape of culprits with koi


Alan Gathright
Chronicle Staff Writer
©2004 San Francisco Chronicle

Saturday, April 17, 2004

The boozy frat boys reveled in their 15 minutes of reality show fame, laughing and mugging for MTV cameras that captured them stealing a beloved jumbo golden fish from a UC Santa Cruz pond last summer -- then bludgeoning it with a beer bottle and gutting, frying and eating it at their off-campus fraternity house.

But Casey Loop and Matthew Cox weren't smiling Friday when a prosecutor played 11 minutes of damning outtakes of the infamous fish slaying -- which never aired on MTV's "Fraternity Life" series -- before Santa Cruz County Superior Court Judge Jeff Almquist sentenced them to 200 hours and 300 hours of community service, respectively. The hours are to be served working at either the county animal shelter or Long Marine Laboratory and at an institute for raising ornamental koi.

They also have to attend Alcoholics Anonymous, pay $500 restitution each to UCSC and send a written apology to the university professor who donated the fish to the koi pond.

The killing of Goldie, a gentle, 18-inch koi, by seven members of Delta Omega Chi fraternity prompted nationwide outrage, but especially angered students on a campus renowned for vegetarian devotion and counterculture values.

While MTV officials denied involvement and a prosecutor found no evidence the film crew encouraged the cruel prank, the judge Friday criticized the youth music network and a reality-show culture that "will put anything that people do on TV. It's a shame."

Almquist stressed that MTV filmed the events, rented the frat house and provided the young men with two SUVs, mounted with automatic video cameras, that were used in the midnight May 20, 2003, raid of the pond at UCSC's Porter College.

"It's clear that these were a bunch of guys playing to the TV sets,'' Almquist said. "This act offended the entire community,'' he added, stressing that the frat members had "desecrated'' the peaceful koi pond that students enjoyed as "a place of reflection.''

Loop, 23, and Cox pleaded no contest last month to misdemeanor grand theft and vandalism, effectively accepting conviction without openly admitting guilt.

Prosecutor Gretchen Brock portrayed Loop, now a San Jose bartender, as the unrepentant ringleader in the fish-napping. She warned Almquist that Loop repeatedly maintained his innocence in media interviews, saying he pleaded no contest only to avoid jail time.

Brock countered Loop's recent statement to a local newspaper that "they have no evidence whatsoever" by playing a video clip showing Loop and his buddies playing the hand game Paper, Scissors, Rock to see who got to go "catch" the fish.

As the SUV passed through the campus security booth, the interior camera captured Loop saying from the backseat, out of earshot of the guard, "OK, we're going to steal your f -- fish."

Cameras did not record the actual capture of the whiskered carp, which the frat boys scooped up with a garden rake.

But back at the seaside frat house, Loop was shown walking in with the huge koi hoisted triumphantly over his head and bellowing: "Yawwwwh!" Then he showed the fish was still living by flicking its head with his fingers.

Some fellow frat brothers were put off by the cruelty.

"This is so morally wrong," a young chubby guy in a sleeveless T-shirt and shorts said. "Don't kill the fish.''

But Loop insisted, "We've got to kill it. What are we going to do, throw it in the ocean?''

Then Cox is seen on an outside deck, clubbing the fish with a 40-ounce beer bottle as some guys turn away, groaning in disgust. Loop then guts it with a kitchen cleaver.

After Cox fried the tiny filet in a skillet, some frat members pick at it with forks. Then Loop suggested hiding the carcass under the house and warned: "The fewer people who know about this right now the better.''

Defense attorneys for the two men stressed that soon after the incident, before being charged, they went to campus officials to take responsibility and paid $650 for a replacement koi.

Cox's attorney, Greg Coben, portrayed the koi killing as a "traditional hazing" -- forcing pledges to swallow live, tiny goldfish -- gone awry.

"It's not like they were targeting this particular, beloved fish,'' Coben said.

Both Coben and Paul Meltzer, Loop's attorney, blamed drunkenness and MTV cameras for spurring the foolish young men on.

"Some people do really stupid things with a camera trained on them," Meltzer said, "and I think Mr. Loop is one of those people."

Finally, Loop rose and said: "Deep, deep down, I do apologize to the Santa Cruz community for everything that I've done.''

After court, however, he added: "I do have remorse. ... But at the end of the day, it's a fish. To some people out there (in Santa Cruz), every fish in the bay is their friend. Every fish is spiritual to them."

The judge didn't buy the defense attorneys' argument that, as experienced fishermen, Loop and Cox were engaging in behavior -- cleaning and eating fish -- that many anglers legally do every day at the Santa Cruz harbor.

Almquist noted that Loop, speaking with his probation officer, compared the incident to "fishing out of season" and added that only in Santa Cruz would he be convicted of a crime.

"To sit there and say this is not an act of animal cruelty," the judge said in response to Coben's plea for leniency, "beggars the sensitivity that many people have in this community."

But one frat member might have offered the ultimate commentary on the videotape: "This is the f -- stupidest thing we've ever done in the entire world.''

©2004 San Francisco Chronicle

I defintely don't remember that... when was this?

it looks like one of them is headed to jail for violating probation.



Koi killer sent to jail for violating probation
By CATHY REDFERN
Sentinel staff writer


SANTA CRUZ — A former UC Santa Cruz fraternity brother has gone from stealing and cooking a campus koi to cooling his heels in County Jail.

Casey Loop, 23, was ordered to jail Wednesday by Judge Jeff Almquist to serve a 45-day sentence in lieu of the 300 hours of community service he had been ordered to perform at his April 16 sentencing, prosecutor Gretchen Brock said.

Upon release, he must comply with the basic terms of his three-year probation. He will not have to perform community service, she said, but will have to complete 50 Alcoholics Anonymous meetings.

rest of the article can be found
here.

Duh!

How much of a dumbass do you have to be not to go to community service...and really easy sounding community service at that.

Thank you! When you get away with a light sentence like he had, ya take it and run with it http://instagiber.net/smiliesdotcom/...ent/Dippie.gif

I still say the sentence was harsh for killing a fish.

But if they were so hungry for fish, they should have just gone to Long John Silver's.