[hoosier]

Oct. 12, 2005

Frat house hit with suspensions

Stillwater teen drowned after attending party
BY ALEX FRIEDRICH
Pioneer Press


Moorhead city officials and national fraternity officers are slapping restrictions on a Minnesota State University-Moorhead fraternity after an intoxicated college sophomore drowned last month.

Moorhead City Manager Bruce Messelt on Tuesday suspended for at least a year the license that allows the owners of the Phi Sigma Kappa fraternity house to rent out rooms on its two lower levels.

The fraternity's national headquarters also has suspended its Moorhead chapter and the membership of those charged in connection with the student's death.

Patrick Kycia, 19, drowned Sept. 23 in the Red River after drinking at a Phi Sigma Kappa party. The Stillwater teenager had a blood-alcohol level of 0.17 percent at the time of his death. According to a Clay County criminal complaint, fraternity members sold $1 cans of beer to underage drinkers at the party and passed around bottles of hard liquor for them to share.

Kycia was last seen staggering away from the party an hour or two after midnight.

On Monday, Clay County prosecutors charged seven current and former fraternity members with selling alcohol that resulted in his death. The charge of selling liquor to a minor resulting in death is a felony.

Prosecutors also charged the seven with selling alcohol without a license and providing alcohol to a person younger than 21, both of which are gross misdemeanors.

Two other members were charged with serving underage drinkers at previous parties.

The death is the second at Phi Sigma Kappa in 11/2 years and the latest of almost three years of alcohol-related problems for the fraternity house. In March 2004, Jason Reinhardt, a former member, died of acute alcohol poisoning at Phi Sigma Kappa after drinking heavily at a bar on his 21st birthday.

The more recent death also is the fraternity's third police incident in six months. City Manager Messelt said police responded to disorderly conduct complaints Aug. 22 and Oct. 6. On Oct. 11, they also investigated the charges related to Kycia's death.

Those "three strikes" triggered a clause that frees city officials to yank the license that allows the house's owner —a fraternity member and his father — to rent out the duplex.

Messelt said the violations dealt with the basement and main-floor rooms, which house four students. Those no longer can be rented out. The upper floor, which houses four more, can.

The revocation is for "some behavior for which we think the landlord bears some responsibility," Messelt said.

The national chapter also has put the brakes on the fraternity. On Monday, it suspended the privileges of those members arrested, including hosting social functions and participating in meetings. The chapter itself can't hold activities.

Phi Sigma Kappa Executive Director Mark Carey would not comment, except to say, "We take every situation involving violations of our policies very seriously."

University spokesman Doug Hamilton said the law doesn't allow him to comment on discipline. The university's student judicial-services body will hear the cases of the nine students facing charges. Punishment for illegally serving alcohol could include expulsion.

The fraternity's fate on campus will come under review by the university's student organization advisory council. Hamilton said officials are seeing whether they have grounds to withdraw recognition.

The Moorhead suspension is just the most recent sanction for out-of-control parties.

Just Monday, the national office of Phi Kappa Tau reportedly suspended its University of Colorado-Boulder chapter indefinitely after a number of party violations. The headquarters of Alpha Sigma Phi closed its Lehigh University chapter late last month after that house had been on probation for violating alcohol rules twice last year.

The University of Delaware itself suspended its chapter of Alpha Tau Omega for several years in February for alcohol and safety violations. Those reportedly came after a drunken student was hit by a train after leaving a party at the fraternity house.