Trial begins for St. John's Phi Beta Sigma paddlers

[hoosier]

November 15, 2004

3 St. John’s grads on trial

Staff Writer
November 15, 2004, 6:39 PM EST
Three St. John's University graduates went on trial in Queens yesterday for allegedly beating a fraternity pledge so harshly during a hazing ritual that he suffered kidney failure.

The members of Phi Beta Sigma fraternity beat Brian Chambers several times with a wooden paddle during the summer of 2003, prosecutors told a jury in State Supreme Court in Kew Gardens.

One night in Kissena Park, the fraternity members paddled Chambers, 21, a communications major from Brooklyn, as many as 50 times in the name of brotherhood, prosecutors said.

The last time Chambers was beaten in the back and buttocks was on July 10, 2003.

"It was the last time because that's when Brian's body gave out," Assistant District Attorney Kimberley Nielsen said in her opening statement. "That's when his body went kaput. ... It lasted longer and he was hit harder than he was ever hit before."

When a relative drove him to a hospital the next night "his entire backside was covered in bruises" and his buttocks were "purple," Nielsen said while referring to medical records she promised to present to the jury.

It remains unclear how many fraternity members, known as Sigmas, participated in the alleged beatings. But on trial are 1995 graduate Phillipe Moreau, 32, of Jamaica, and 2003 graduates Anthony Dabreu, 25, of Canarsie, and Matthew Fraser, of Elmont.

"If these were your children, you'd be proud," said Dabreu's attorney, Pierre Lorsy, whose opening statement represented all three defendants.

"We have the greatest sympathy for Mr. Chambers," Lorsy said. "The injuries \[described\] are going to be horrible."

But Lorsy and Fraser's attorney Frank Hancock, as well as Moreau's attorney, Michael Connolly, say they plan to show that Chambers suffered his injuries away from the park and pledge process.

The defendants are each charged with second-degree assault, a felony, and, if convicted, face up to 7 years in prison.

Because the defendants are not charged with hazing, a misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail, Justice Daniel Lewis has barred attorneys from using that term during the trial. Instead, the attorneys may use initiation or pledging.

Lewis himself is a member of the same fraternity, which was founded in 1914 at Howard University in Washington.

Chambers is expected to testify today.