HAZING TAPE SLOW GETTING TO POLICE; NITZSCHKE SAYS UNIVERSITY ACTED PROPERLY

Southeast Missouri State University student-affairs officials got an audio tape in May of an alleged fraternity hazing, but didn't turn it over to campus police until this week.

Cape Girardeau County Prosecuting Attorney Morley Swingle and campus police learned of the hazing allegations a few days ago through news reports.

University President Dr. Dale Nitzschke said he learned of the alleged hazing incident Wednesday. But he defended the actions of Dr. SueAnn Strom, vice president of student affairs; and judicial affairs officer Jim Pelfrey. Pelfrey deals with fraternities and sororities in his role as associate director of Greek life at Southeast.

Nitzschke said they acted properly in proceeding with a judicial affairs investigation and suspending Sigma Tau Gamma fraternity before calling in campus police.

"We couldn't move ahead just on inferences," said Nitzschke. "We had to wait until we had evidence."

Anti-hazing activist Eileen Stevens, who lives on Long Island, criticized the school's handling of the matter. She questioned why school officials didn't report the allegations of hazing to campus police in May.

The fraternity was accused of verbally abusing pledges.

"This is shocking, and it seems to me it was not handled appropriately from the very beginning," Stevens said Thursday.

"My opinion is that they are just avoiding the issue or trying to avoid the negative publicity that surrounds it," she said.

Stevens said secrecy perpetuates hazing. "If college administrators are helping that whole secrecy aspect of it, then something is very wrong," she said.

Universities nationwide often cover up hazing incidents, saying that the student privacy laws prevent them from talking about such cases, said Stevens. "They are hiding behind it," she said.

Stevens founded the Committee to Halt Useless College Killings or CHUCK after her son, Chuck, who died in a fraternity hazing at Alford University in New York in February 1978.

Stevens spoke to about 600 members of fraternities and sororities at Southeast in September 1995.

Stevens' visit followed the February 1994 hazing death at Southeast of fraternity pledge Michael Davis, 25, of St. Louis.

Since his death, at least four other students across the nation have died from hazing and countless others have been injured, she said.

Forty states have anti-hazing laws, including Missouri.

The county prosecutor said people aren't required to notify police if they witness a crime or have evidence of a possible crime. He said Missouri's hazing law doesn't require colleges and universities to notify police of hazing incidents.

Joseph Dustin Frisella, 21, of Arnold filed the hazing complaint that led to the school's decision in late August to suspend the Sigma Tau Gamma fraternity for three years.

Frisella said he was verbally hazed for two hours and forced to sit on his knees at the fraternity house at 1409 N. Sprigg late last year, a few weeks before the end of the fall semester.

He taped the incident and turned it over to Pelfrey on May 12.

School officials instructed campus police to proceed with a criminal investigation Wednesday.

Frisella said a campus police officer interviewed him at his Arnold home Thursday.

The campus police department expects to complete its investigation in a week to 10 days and report its findings to the county prosecutor. The investigation could lead to the filing of criminal hazing charges.

Hazing has been a crime in Missouri since 1987. The law was strengthened in 1995 after Davis died.

Frisella was kicked out of school after assaulting a Sigma Tau Gamma fraternity member on Dec. 7. Frisella had pledged the fraternity. He was booted out of the fraternity a few days before the assault.

He said Thursday that he informed Pelfrey of the hazing in mid-December.

Frisella said he telephoned Pelfrey in January and reported that he had audio-taped evidence of hazing.

Nitzschke said the university didn't receive an "official complaint" of hazing until late January. Frisella said he waited until after his assault case had been dealt with in court before turning the tape over to Pelfrey.

Associate Circuit Judge Gary Kamp placed Frisella on two years' probation on April 17.

Frisella questioned why the university didn't take quicker action in the hazing case.

Nitzschke said Frisella was represented by a lawyer. "In today's world, everything is so litigious," he said. "You've got attorneys on both sides who are advising this or that. It absolutely shuts down the system on occasion."

Typically, a person accused of violating the student code of conduct is given a hearing before a student judicial board. But the spring semester ended before a hearing could be held. Pelfrey then decided to wait until students returned for the fall semester.

But Pelfrey and Strom later decided that the judicial affairs office should hold a hearing before the start of school.

Nitzschke said the situation had become heated. "There were a lot of charges and countercharges," he said.

Frisella complained that he had received threatening telephone calls. The faculty representative for Sigma Tau Gamma was pushing for the hearing to proceed, Nitzschke said.

Nitzschke said the decision to suspend the fraternity for three years was made by Pelfrey and Strom in late August.