10 Tulane Pikes Arrested for Hazing

[PeppyGPhiB]

Originally Posted by banditone

are you serious?

Yeah I'm serious. We didn't have Pikes at my school, and I knew a couple guys from the UW chapter (not to mention a colleague of mine was their chapter advisor) and they all seemed like good guys. So I've never been given a negative impression of them. My point was that there are plenty of folks that have no knowledge of organizations other than what they may read on the Internet, so it's not in good PR form to say "my organization is known for hazing and raping" on a forum like this.

[exlurker]

Update May 16, 2008: Civil Suit Filed

Station WDSU has a very brief article posted that says a civil lawsuit has been filed by one of the pledges who was allegedly hazed / burned:

http://www.wdsu.com/news/16279499/detail.html

[Rudey]

Since when is it hard to get into tulane?

Also it's not just torture, it's straight up gay torture. Burning genitals? Combine the records of the goons arrested with the campus' greek advisor (who was a real piece of work too and did nothing earlier) and this is mild.

[jon1856]

Cameacross the following two stories while looking up something else;
seem to be the local home town papers of three of the Pikes:
Rye man charged in Tulane hazing

A 20-year-old college student from Rye is at the center of a hazing scandal at Tulane University, among those accused of pouring scalding, pepper-laced water on two fraternity pledges who suffered second- and third-degree burns during a "hell night" ritual.
Joseph Lorono of 40 Sonn Drive is among 10 Tulane students facing felony battery charges for the April 25 incident in New Orleans, which occurred in the tarp-covered basement of Pi Kappa Alpha. One victim said he actually saw Lorono pouring the water on him from a gasoline canister, according to court papers....
http://www.lohud.com/apps/pbcs.dll/a...=2008805150496

Two students from LI arrested in hazing case
Two 20-year-old Long Island men are among the members of a Tulane University fraternity accused of helping to burn more than 10 fraternity pledges in New Orleans with hot water and pepper spray at a recent initiation "Hell Night."

Preston Gelman, of Dix Hills, and Kevin Dunn, of Bellmore, were with about eight other members of the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity on April 25 when the incident allegedly occurred in New Orleans.

The young men poured boiling water on pledges and caked them with flour, crab soup, vinegar, cayenne peppers and wasabi sauce, according to published reports. The victims were treated at a hospital for second- and third-degree burns.....
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/na...,3593065.story

[nittanyalum]

Originally Posted by jon1856

Came across the following two stories while looking up something else; seem to be the local home town papers of three of the Pikes:
Rye man charged in Tulane hazing

A 20-year-old college student from Rye is at the center of a hazing scandal at Tulane University, among those accused of pouring scalding, pepper-laced water on two fraternity pledges who suffered second- and third-degree burns during a "hell night" ritual.
Joseph Lorono of 40 Sonn Drive is among 10 Tulane students facing felony battery charges for the April 25 incident in New Orleans, which occurred in the tarp-covered basement of Pi Kappa Alpha. One victim said he actually saw Lorono pouring the water on him from a gasoline canister, according to court papers....
http://www.lohud.com/apps/pbcs.dll/a...=2008805150496

First, kid looks like a dork from his picture. Second, LOL and that they put his street address in the article. And reading this part made me really sad:
"The pledges begged them to stop and tried to leave, but were ordered to stay and endure hours of excruciating pain during the final stage of their initiation, one of the victims' lawyers told The Journal News yesterday."

And this made me really mad:
"Exacerbating the pain was some of the water being laced with cayenne and other spices in a southern "crab-boil," the lawyer said. "It's incredibly spicy, and sometimes just touching it to your fingers will burn you," lawyer Paul Hesse said. "Well, you can imagine if you've got open wounds. This went on for hours. My client estimates that he must have sustained seven gallons of boiling water, which scalded him and caused burns to his back, neck, shoulders, arms, chest, buttocks. There really wasn't any part of him that was saved."

Unfathomable. Can you imagine the reaction of their parents? Someone doing this to their kid? Good god.

[tuSigDelt]

so... i also go to Tulane and participate in the greek system there. and I would like to set the record straight.

I encourage you all to support the 24 fraternities and sororities at Tulane that are still in good standing by not perpetuating rumors or embellishments of the truth. TWO pledges were injured, TEN were responsible, and the Eta Chapter's charter was nullified both locally and nationally.

These are allegations that will be properly dealt with at the start of the fall semester. Those who are proven to have broken the law will be dealt with both with the state of Louisiana and Tulane Student Affairs. Not to mention that the entire student body knows who these guys are and so they go to class and walk around campus shamed. What I'm saying is that these guys will not get off easy.

That being said, I think it's important to remember this is not the first or last time that something like this has happened- an unfortunate by-product of what's supposed to be one of the better experiences of college. You can't imagine how much publicity Tulane itself has been getting because of this.

to put it nicely, "good riddance" is what pretty much the entire community is thinking at this point. the boys of Pike have had this coming for a long, long time and everybody knows it. Tulane Pike is absolutely NOT indicative of the character or morals of the rest of the greeks on our campus.

On a side note - the average size of sorority pledge classes has, in one year, gone up from about 30 to 50 girls in each of the 6 NPC chapters (AEPhi, Chi O, Theta, Kappa, SDT, Pi Phi). We predict roughly 100 more than last year will go through recruitment in January of 2009.

So for that poster who said our greek system is declining, I'm happy to report that you are mistaken.

Thanks.

[libelle]

As a former little sister of the TU Pike chapter, I find this story very, very sad. As tuSigDelt said this behavior is not indicative of TU students.

[exlurker]

Update:

http://www.nola.com/news/index.ssf/2..._tulane_f.html

Excerpts from the longer article ^ from the Times-Picayune:

Orleans Parish prosecutors refused to charge ten members of a Tulane University fraternity arrested this spring in what police called a hazing that included the pouring of crab-boil and boiling water on two pledges.

A preliminary hearing had been scheduled today . . . . Instead, the district attorney's office announced it would seek no charges against the men, all originally booked with aggravated second-degree battery.

. . . A personal injury lawsuit was filed in federal court May 16 by Matthew Martin against Pi Kappa Alpha Corporation and a dozen individual men - including all ten who were arrested. Martin said that the fraternity members burned him during "Hell Night" and then urged him to downplay his injuries so as not to get the house into trouble. . . .

So apparently we may hear more later concerning the personal injury lawsuit.

[libelle]

Tulane U. purchased the former Pike (Eta) house to use for campus security. It is too bad a fraternity house would be removed from the pool of available Greek housing given NOLA's zoning regulations.

http://thehullabaloo.com/?p=5180