Frat Hazing - Pledges Forced To Carry Feces Covered Rocks Through Forest

[matcom]

<snip>

ONEONTA — A reported hazing incidenStar photo by Julie Lewis A house at 71 Elm St. in Oneonta where fraternity hazing allegedly took place is seen Tuesday. t at Hartwick College has led to the arrest and suspension of three students and the revocation of a 40-year-old fraternity chapter’s right to operate.

The hazing involved pledges of Alpha Chi Rho being forced to carry feces-covered rocks through a forest and do exercises in a basement full of urine-soaked garbage last month, according to documents on file with Oneonta City Court.

Steven Collum, 21, of Ballston Lake, Peter Torabkhan, 21, of Manhattan, and Michael Scandiffio, 21, of Neponsit, were charged Monday by state police at Oneonta with first-degree hazing, a class A misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail.


A fourth man, Yury Pertsovsky, 19, of Brooklyn, was charged with second-degree aggravated harassment, also a class A misdemeanor, for allegedly making threatening phone calls to the freshman who reported the incident. College officials said Pertsovsky is not a student at Hartwick.


All three Hartwick students were suspended from the college along with their fraternity, said Greg Krikorian, Hartwick College vice president for student life, on Tuesday.


The Alpha Chi Rho National Fraternity, based in Neptune, N.J., on Tuesday ordered the Hartwick chapter closed based on the allegations.


Investigator T.R. Ward of the state police Bureau of Criminal Investigations said Tuesday additional arrests are possible.


The alleged hazing incident was brought to the attention of troopers after the mother of one of the alleged victims, Jonathan Brewer, 19, of Morris, contacted the Otsego County District Attorney’s Office. Attempts to reach Brewer on Tuesday were not successful.


Brewer’s sworn statement taken by Ward on May 4 and on file in city court indicated that on April 19 he and other pledges were forced by the defendants to do push-ups and "up downs" in garbage containing glass and dirty diapers in the basement of 71 Elm St., the house where Torabkhan lives.


The garbage was urinated on by Torabkhan, Brewer said in his statement.


http://www.thedailystar.com/cgi-bin/starsafe.pl