SOUTHEAST SUSPENDS FRATERNITY; HAZING CHARGES STUDIED

Southeast Missouri State University has suspended the local chapter of Sigma Tau Gamma fraternity for three years for hazing prospective members.

On top of that, fraternity members could face criminal charges if Cape Girardeau County Prosecuting Attorney Morley Swingle decides the situation warrants it.

Swingle won't make that determination until campus police complete an investigation into the hazing allegations.

Campus police director Doug Richards expects to complete the investigation within a week to 10 days.

It is the third serious hazing incident involving a fraternity or sorority at Southeast in the last three years.

In February 1994, Michael Davis died after being beaten in a Kappa Alpha Psi hazing ritual.

Sigma Tau Gamma may appeal the ruling by the school's judicial affairs coordinator, who investigated a complaint made by a former pledge.

That former pledge -- Joseph Dustin Frisella, 21, of Arnold -- was convicted of assaulting a member of the Sigma Tau Gamma fraternity, court and police records show.

Frisella said he and other pledges were hazed last fall at the fraternity house.

He said they were forced to sit on their knees a lot and were verbally abused. The abuse involved obscenities.

Frisella also said fraternity members slapped pledges on the back of the head, spat at them and ordered them to do push-ups.

Frisella provided school officials with a two-hour audiotape of the verbal hazing to support his allegations. Frisella said Wednesday from his home in Arnold that he made the tape because he was a criminal justice major and was concerned pledges might be asked to break the law.

A student at the Sigma Tau Gamma fraternity house refused to talk to a Southeast Missourian reporter and photographer Wednesday afternoon.

Any appeal of the suspension by the fraternity would have to be filed this week, said Dr. Kimberly Barrett, dean of students.

If it is filed, it likely would be heard by Dr. SueAnn Strom, vice president of student affairs.

If the ruling stands, fraternity members will have to move out of the university-owned, brick house at 1409 N. Sprigg. The fraternity leases the home.

Barrett said the home likely would be made available to another fraternity or sorority under a similar lease arrangement.

Last year, Southeast suspended Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority for five years because of hazing. Some of the sorority members also were convicted on criminal hazing charges.

The school permanently banned Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity after Davis' death in 1994. Some of the fraternity members also were convicted on criminal charges.

Barrett said an administrative hearing in the latest hazing case was held in August, and the judicial affairs officer's decision occurred later that month, near the start of the current fall semester.

Barrett said she didn't know why the hearing and ruling didn't occur until August. Barrett is new to the job, having served as Southeast's dean of students for only a month.

Barrett said she felt the suspension was justified. The investigation began after Frisella was referred to campus judicial authorities after he assaulted a Sigma Tau Gamma fraternity member on Dec. 7.

The campus judicial authorities investigated and took action in the assault case, but Barrett said student privacy laws prevent her from disclosing what action was taken.

But Frisella said he was kicked out of school because of the assault charge.

"The system has failed for me. It has devastated me and my family," he said. He questioned why the university took so long to suspend the fraternity.

The criminal case against Frisella, unlike the university's judicial proceeding, is an open record.

According to police and court records, this is what happened:

Frisella picked up Eric Stevenson from the Sigma Tau Gamma house on that day.

A Cape Girardeau police report indicates Frisella drove to his sister's apartment at 605 N. Sprigg.

Stevenson said Frisella attacked him after he stepped out of the black pickup truck, around 4 p.m. that day.

"I got out and he began to hit me in the head. I fell to the ground," Stevenson said in his statement to police.

"I have no idea why he hit me. He has serious problems and he is just crazy," Stevenson said.

Stevenson told police Frisella had been a Sigma Tau Gamma pledge, but that he had been "kicked out" of the fraternity three days earlier. Frisella, however, said he was kicked out of the fraternity because another pledge told Sigma Tau Gamma members he had taped the hazing incident.

Frisella told a city police officer he never assaulted Stevenson, but later admitted to the crime.

Frisella said Wednesday that he acted in self defense after he was attacked by Stevenson.

At the time of his arrest last December, he told the officer that he "did not ever have a problem" with members of the Sigma Tau Gamma fraternity.

Frisella was charged with second-degree assault. On Feb. 19, Frisella pleaded guilty to third-degree assault, a misdemeanor.

On April 17, Associate Circuit Judge Gary A. Kamp sentenced Frisella to 90 days in jail and fined him $1,000, but the judge then suspended execution of the sentence and placed Frisella on two years' probation.

The conviction remains on his record unlike a suspended imposition of sentence.

On Wednesday, university officials ordered the campus police department to investigate the hazing incident and report its findings to the prosecuting attorney.

Richards said this case is unusual in that the initial complaint wasn't made to his campus officers or the city police.

As a result, there was no police investigation, Richards said.

The case was investigated entirely by the university's judicial affairs office, which deals with violations of university policies and does so largely in secret.