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From Fraternal News

Los Angeles Times
January 15, 2002

UC Irvine Fraternity Suspended Amid Investigation Into Hazing;
School: Beta Theta Pi is sanctioned by its national headquarters
after a pledge files suit, saying he suffered a grand mal seizure.

JEFF GOTTLIEB, TIMES STAFF WRITER

A UC Irvine fraternity has been suspended by its national
headquarters during an investigation of a pledge's claim that he
suffered a grand mal seizure and was hospitalized after a weekend of
hazing in Big Bear.

UCI, meanwhile, is conducting its own investigation of Beta Theta Pi
in connection with a lawsuit filed Nov. 28 by Jeff Warden, who said
he was forced to exercise in freezing temperatures and had beer
forced down his throat while being subjected to continuous verbal
abuse during the initiation in December 2000.

Diane Kim, the campus director of student judicial affairs, said a
decision on whether to impose a penalty is expected by the end of the
month. Sanctions could include suspending the fraternity for an
extended period of time or making it the first Greek organization to
be banned from UCI. Hazing is a misdemeanor under the state Education
Code and is punishable by fines of $50 to $5,000 or not more than a
year in the county jail. Kim also will decide whether to refer the
matter to police, said Randy Lewis, UCI's associate dean of students.

Beta Theta Pi, which has had a chapter at the school for 26 years,
has a reputation for being the top-ranked academically.

"Basically, we're a bunch of smart guys who are good at sports," said
Edwin Steen, fraternity president. He declined to comment on the
incident, other than to confirm the investigations. The local chapter
has not hired an attorney, he said.

Although hazing is specifically prohibited by UCI, "it's hard to
enforce," said Paul Suhr, president of UCI's Interfraternity Council.

Warden, 20, is a sophomore film studies major from Colorado Springs,
Colo., who wants to be a director. His lawsuit, filed in Orange
County Superior Court, seeks unspecified monetary damages for
assault, battery, intentional infliction of emotional distress and
negligent infliction of emotional distress. The suit also names 13
Beta brothers as defendants.

In describing the stay at Big Bear in an interview and in his
lawsuit, Warden tells a tale of 18- and 19-year-old pledges pushed so
hard that they break down in tears and rebel against the fraternity.

Rush was in its final weekend on Dec. 8, 2000, when Warden and two
other pledges drove with about 15 fraternity members and alumni to
Big Bear. Warden said he thought they were going snowboarding.

When the group arrived in Big Bear about midnight, Steen, then the
vice president, told pledges to hand over their cell phones and
valuables for safekeeping. The pledges were offered beer, and Warden
said marijuana was passed around.

He said he didn't smoke, and insisted on having a soft drink. As the
evening went on and Warden still refused to drink beer, fraternity
members chanted his name, "Jeff! Jeff! Jeff!" so loudly that he
couldn't hear himself talk. Finally, two members picked him up and
shoved the keg hose into his mouth.

What followed was a night of the fraternity members imitating drill
sergeants, yelling abuse at the pledges. Pillowcases were placed over
their heads as they were moved from cabins that were as hot as a
sauna to those that were unheated.

When morning came, pledges were handed a cup filled with what Warden
thinks was raw eggs and hot sauce. Next came a main course of
eggs-raw and scrambled, with green food coloring-that pledges were
told to eat without using their hands. One pledge objected, and a
member pushed the youth's face into the plate.

When they finished eating, pledges were ordered to hold Warden by the
legs and the head and use him as a human squeegee to clean the table.

Then he was handed a mop and told to clean the floor. "I dropped the
mop I told them, 'That's not what we're here for.' I was confused and
furious at the same time.'

Warden said another drinking game began, and he was made to do
push-ups. By this time, he said, he was so tired he could barely
finish one. As he lay on the ground, he was forced to join in a
simulated sex act with the two other pledges.

When he got up, Warden said he told the frat members he didn't feel
well, and went outside for a few minutes. Back inside the cabin,
Warden said he felt his field of vision constricting.

"I was coherent, and then I wasn't," Warden said. "I could feel
something happen to me.'

The next thing he remembered he was in leg and arm restraints at Bear
Valley Community Hospital.

He was diagnosed with a grand mal seizure. Warden said he never
experienced one before, and hasn't had one since.

Fraternity members took him from the hospital and dropped him off at
his aunt's house in San Juan Capistrano.

A few days later, Warden's temperature hit 101.5, and he went to UC
Irvine Medical Center in Orange, where he was subjected to tests,
which turned up no abnormalities.

Betas told him not to tell anyone what had happened because the
fraternity would get in trouble, Warden said. They left phone
messages asking him to come to meetings.

But he said he had had enough of the Greek life. He avoided
fraternity members for the rest of the school year.

Last fall, he reported the Big Bear events to a campus ombudsman. "He
said I definitely had a case, and I should get counseling and get a
lawyer, and he'd notify the school.'

Warden said that he hadn't plan to sue. The fraternity had assured
him they would pay the $10,000 in medical bills. But he said they
paid him only $3,000.

"It's kind of sad," Warden said. "My whole view of fraternities has
changed. I thought they stood for brotherhood, friendship and people
you'd know for life.'