KAPsi-Emory soph tells hazing story

[hoosier]

BREAKING NEWS: Scholar alleges hazing by fraternity brothers


By Jeremy Stahl (Emory Student Newsp.)
Executive Editor
April 15, 2004


A Woodruff Scholar who was hospitalized and arrested after spring break for issues relating to bipolar disorder, has accused some of his Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity brothers of hazing him during last year’s pledge process, and drugging him and his girlfriend during spring break this year.

College sophomore Raymond McKoy sent a 14-page letter to an array of media outlets and students detailing the physical, mental and emotional abuse he claims to have endured at the hands of three of his brothers in the historically black fraternity.

In the letter, McKoy included nine photographs of his beaten, half-naked body. The photographs, which his roommate said to he took when McKoy was first hazed during his fraternity’s pledging process, or intake, last spring, depict scars, welts and massive bruises all over McKoy’s back, chest and buttocks.

“I told him that it wasn’t worth that and that I didn’t understand why he felt the need to join an organization that would do that to him,” said College sophomore Matthew Eisenman, McKoy’s roommate.

McKoy outlined the abuse in the letter, which was sent Wednesday night to, among others, talk show host Tavis Smiley, MSNBC, ABC and attorney Johnny Cochran.

“During our eight-week process, we were beaten, mentally hazed, forced to run errands and tortured in various ways, including in our genital area,” McKoy wrote.

Assistant Vice President of Campus Life Bridget Guernsey Riordan confirmed that there is a Conduct Council investigation of the charges underway.

McKoy, who holds Emory’s highest scholarship, said he withdrew from the University last semester after having to battle with the depression as well as a bout of Mononucleosis.

He came back to the school at the beginning of the semester, but has not returned since spring break, when he said he was sent to jail and then hospitalized in Raleigh (N.C.) from issues stemming from a bipolar disorder, which was brought on by the abuse from his fraternity brothers.

After consulting with doctors, he said he now believes he was drugged during the hazing process last spring as well as over this spring break.

McKoy, who said he started exhibiting bipolar disorder after the fraternity abuse began, said he believes he and his girlfriend were drugged by two of his Kappa Alpha Psi brothers who spiked his water at a party in Atlanta on Sunday March 7, causing the manic phase of his bipolar disorder to kick in. He claims not to have remembered that Monday’s events and was arrested for misdemeanor assault and resisting arrest on Tuesday after he got into a scuffle with his mother.

Eisenman said that the only possible explanation for McKoy’s action was a drugging.

“He would never do that under normal circumstances,” he said.

McKoy, who attributes his arrest to the combination of drugs, along with the bipolar disorder he says he inherited from his father, was imprisoned between Tuesday and Friday in a New Hanover (N.C.) jailhouse.

On Friday, McKoy was moved to Raleigh’s Holly Hill Hospital.

In a letter to the Associate Dean of the College Thomas Lancaster on Holly Hill Hospital letterhead, a doctor wrote that “Raymond McKoy, a sophomore at your institution, has been receiving emergency medical care as an inpatient in the Raleigh area since March 12, 2004.” Lancaster could not be reached for confirmation, by press time Thursday.

McKoy moved to another hospital and has since been released. He is now at home in Raleigh.

Andy Wilson, assistant dean for Campus Life and director of student conduct, said that the Conduct Council was looking into the fraternity as a whole and not yet investigating individuals.

But McKoy wrote in his letter that he loved his fraternity and would not pursue litigation. He added, however, that he was planning on filing civil and criminal charges against three brothers.

One of the fraternity brothers McKoy listed declined comment.

Kappa Alpha Psi has been ordered to “cease and desist” all chapter functions until the conduct process is finished, Wilson said.

Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity President David Walker declined to comment because the Conduct Council investigation is ongoing.

The Council has been investigating the situation for about two weeks, but Riordan said she first learned of it around March 24.

McKoy ended his letter by repeating “I love Kappa Alpha Psi,” and requesting that his fraternity be treated leniently.

“Please make sure that the pledges become members and that the situation is handled before anyone else is hurt,” McKoy wrote.