Phi Beta Sigma members found NOT Guilty

[TheEpitome1920]

By Herbert Lowe
STAFF WRITER

December 13, 2004, 3:28 PM EST


A Queens jury declared three Phi Beta Sigma members not guilty today
of severely beating a pledge with a paddle in the St. John's
University fraternity trial.

The defendants hugged one another while their mothers and supporters
erupted with a huge uproar after the jury foreman read the last
verdict in State Supreme Court in Kew Gardens.

Afterward, several jurors warmly greeted Anthony D'Abreu, 25, Matthew
Fraser, 24, and Phillipe Moreau, 32, each of whom had faced up to 7
years in prison if convicted of the sole charge, second-degree
assault.

"They're all good boys," said the foreman, John Tonkin, 54, a heating
inspector with the city Housing Authority. "I've got three grown boys of my own and if they were my boys, I'd be proud of them."

Prosecutors contended the defendants beat Brian Chambers so severely with a wooden paddle that he was hospitalized for two weeks.

Chambers, 22, testified that he was in so much pain from being
paddled 50 times in Kissena Park, on July 10, 2003, that "it felt
like my back was in a vise" when he went to a hospital 36 hours later.

"A majority of us felt that the prosecution didn't give us enough
evidence," said another juror, 27, a social work major at Borough of Manhattan Community College, who preferred to remain anonymous.

The defendants each testified during a month-long trial that they
were elsewhere when Chambers, then of Bay Ridge, was beaten. They also said Chambers was too early in his initiation process to be struck.

D'Abreu, of Canarsie, Fraser, of Queens Village, and Moreau, of
Jamaica, all St. John's graduates, testified that they were at a late-night Phi Beta Sigma planning meeting at Hunter College in Manhattan
that night.

"There is no proof beyond a reasonable doubt that they were in the
same county with him [Chambers] the night he was struck," Moreau's
attorney, Michael Connolly, said in his closing argument on Wednesday.

The jury of seven women and five men began deliberating Thursday.
Prosecutors contend the defendants wanted to ensure he did
not "skate" into the fraternity. They were also upset that another
pledge, Ryan Jackson, had quit, leaving Chambers to pledge alone.

"'You're getting more because Ryan's not here,'" Assistant District
Attorney Kimberley Nielsen, during her closing argument, quoted
Chambers as saying about the defendants telling him the night he was
beaten. "'Don't you wish your 'LB' [line brother] was here now.'"

Fraser and defense witnesses testified that Chambers showed no signs
of ailing while helping him and another Sigma, Karl Edwards, move
Edwards' fiancée's furniture the day after the alleged beating.

"I've known Brian for a long time," Fraser testified. "He didn't seem
any different that day than any normal day."

[Senusret I]

"They're all good boys," said the foreman, John Tonkin, 54, a heating inspector with the city Housing Authority. "I've got three grown boys of my own and if they were my boys, I'd be proud of them."

That's rigoddamneddiculous.

I am sickened by this verdict.

[Rudey]

Didn't the guy have visible damage to him?

Wouldn't he know who beat him and be able to ID them?

And the judge was in the same fraternity?

And the jurors are proud of the defendants? Were they in the same fraternity?

I just don't understand how someone can be beaten and evidently know who beat him but it's swept under the rug...

If he was lying about who beat him put him in prison just so I know someone's in jail.

-Rudey

[hoosier]

OJ's jury moved east, it appears, and it seems like the judge - from the same GLO - should have recused himself.

[PsychTau]

Originally posted by TheEpitome1920
The defendants each testified during a month-long trial that they
were elsewhere when Chambers, then of Bay Ridge, was beaten. They also said Chambers was too early in his initiation process to be struck.

Anyone else creeped out by that statement?

PsychTau

[tunatartare]

Originally posted by PsychTau
Anyone else creeped out by that statement?

PsychTau

glad to know I'm not the only one...

[hoosier]

PsychTau:

Shutterpoint says:

"This photographer cannnot be found.
Go Back"

[Virtual Violet]

Originally posted by TheEpitome1920
The defendants each testified during a month-long trial that they were elsewhere when Chambers, then of Bay Ridge, was beaten. They also said Chambers was too early in his initiation process to be struck.

WTF!!!! How is that a defense to anything!!!

[i]D'Abreu, of Canarsie, Fraser, of Queens Village, and Moreau, of Jamaica, all St. John's graduates, testified that they were at a late-night Phi Beta Sigma planning meeting at Hunter College in Manhattan that night..[/B]

And the corroborating witnesses were??? Ummm lemme guess THEIR FRATERNITY BROTHERS!

Sad, all the way around...tells hazers that they can get off if the case is clouded enough to create reasonable doubt.

[TheEpitome1920]

Originally posted by hoosier
OJ's jury moved east, it appears, and it seems like the judge - from the same GLO - should have recused himself.

OJ's jury??

What does the judge have to do with the case? He didn't give the verdict.

However, I'm not happy with the verdict. I'm also upset at the young man who allowed himself to be hazed when he was already a member of the organization. Peer pressure is no excuse for a grown a$$ man. Not to mention the other brothers who participated in the hazing. I don't know what its going to take for the madness to stop.

[shadokat]

Too early in the process??!?!?! So had he been farther along in the process, they'd have beat him to a pulp then? I'm sorry, but that is just insane.

[Rudey]

Originally posted by TheEpitome1920
OJ's jury??

What does the judge have to do with the case? He didn't give the verdict.

However, I'm not happy with the verdict. I'm also upset at the young man who allowed himself to be hazed when he was already a member of the organization. Peer pressure is no excuse for a grown a$$ man. Not to mention the other brothers who participated in the hazing. I don't know what its going to take for the madness to stop.

A judge has a lot to do with the case. A judge isn't just someone who sits pretty and nods his head every so often.

As for the victim, well do you go around to women's shelters and ask why they allow themselves to be beaten?

I don't care who is arrested and put in jail. Arrest the guys who beat him or arrest him for lying, but someone needs to be in jail as far as I'm concerned because you can't be half-right about who beat your ass with a paddle.

-Rudey

[TheEpitome1920]

Originally posted by Rudey
A judge has a lot to do with the case. A judge isn't just someone who sits pretty and nods his head every so often.

As for the victim, well do you go around to women's shelters and ask why they allow themselves to be beaten?

I don't care who is arrested and put in jail. Arrest the guys who beat him or arrest him for lying, but someone needs to be in jail as far as I'm concerned because you can't be half-right about who beat your ass with a paddle.

-Rudey

The Judge admitted to being a Sigma and said he would be able to do his job regardless of his affliation. If they felt that it wasn't cool couldn't they have asked for another judge?

I don't see the comparison between this case and domestic violence. This dude was already a Sigma and wanted to be hazed.

[Rudey]

Originally posted by TheEpitome1920
The Judge admitted to being a Sigma and said he would be able to do his job regardless of his affliation. If they felt that it wasn't cool couldn't they have asked for another judge?

I don't see the comparison between this case and domestic violence. This dude was already a Sigma and wanted to be hazed.

I don't know why they didn't ask for another judge. Perhaps the lawyer was incompetent. Perhaps it didn't matter.

The comparison is that this man is a victim and was beaten severely. He could have up'd and left but then again a woman who stays with her husband regardless of whether he beats her could have up'd and left as well.

As for him being a Sigma already: "They also said Chambers was too early in his initiation process to be struck." Doesn't that mean he's going through some process to get wherever the funk you gotta get and be initiated "to be a Sigma"? The whole process and early means there is more he has to go through.

-Rudey

[Tom Earp]

Many things of the case seem out of whack and can be reviewed and called for a reversal or an adjudgement, reclusion, yes, Statements of this Nature lead to suspesion of previous wrong doing!

Dam are the Dum!

Nice Signature DimWit!

[kddani]

the lawyer who didn't try to press the issue for the judge to recuse himself ought to be sued for malpractice! that's a pretty basic thing.