Newsday
November 18, 2004
A composed Brian Chambers took the stand Tuesday, as he recounted a secret pledge initiation in Kissena Park that he said sent him to the hospital with kidney failure. Chambers, 21, was an undergraduate at St. John's University in Jamaica Estates at the time of the alleged ritual beatings. He was already a member of the historically black fraternity, Phi Beta Sigma, in the spring of 2002. In his testimony, Chambers said he was badly beaten in a second initiation, which occurred a year later over several evenings between June 15 and July 10, 2003 at Kissena Park in Flushing.
He named the three defendants, 1995 St. John's graduate Phillipe Moreau, 32, of Jamaica, and 2003 graduates Anthony Dabreu, 25, of Canarsie and Matthew Fraser, 24, of Elmont, as responsible for his hospitalization, which was the result of being beaten repeatedly on his backside with a wooden paddle.
The defendants are charged with second-degree assault and face up to seven years in prison. They are not charged with hazing, which is a misdemeanor and carries a maximum sentence of one year in jail. The word, "hazing," has been barred from the court proceedings.
Chambers testified that he and seven
other St. John's students were admitted to the fraternity in the spring of 2002
after a relatively tame initiation process that included oral and written tests
on the history of Phi Beta Sigma. Later that summer, the other newly initiated
fraternity members were put through a second, "underground," initiation,
but Chambers declined.
Since the school term was over, Chambers was living in Brooklyn, caring for his ill grandmother. "I really didn't have time for it," he said. All but three of the recruits completed the second initiation. At the end of the 2003 spring semester, he was asked again to complete the second initiation and agreed to it. If you didn't complete it, he said, "you were recognized as a brother nationally, but ostracized socially." He said the underground initiations were prohibited by the national Phi Beta Sigma organization, but were commonplace among individual chapters.
Judge Daniel Lewis, who is presiding over the case, is a Phi Beta Sigma member himself, which he disclosed at the start of the trial. He said that in spite of his membership in the fraternity, he could be fair. Pierre Lowsy, defense attorney for Dabreu, said he believed Judge Lewis would bend over backwards to be fair and that he had "a beautiful judicial temperament."
Chambers described the second initiation as a succession of night meetings with his "dean," or mentor, Moreau. He said he would go over to Moreau's Jamaica apartment with another Phi Beta Sigma member being initiated, Ryan Jackson. On some nights the two would be taken by Moreau and the other defendants to a partially secluded area in Kissena Park at 10 or 10:30 p.m. There they would be asked to do calisthenics, such as push-ups, sit-ups and running, Chambers testified. They were also asked to recite parts of the fraternity's history. If they made a mistake they would be struck on the backside with a two-pound wooden paddle, about a foot long, four inches wide and two inches thick, he continued.
While being paddled the two men assumed a position they called, "in the cut," which consisted of being bent over with the right arm and hand extended outward in a fist, and the left hand covering the genitals.
Chambers testified that he and Jackson were paddled approximately 30 times per "set," with multiple sets per evening. He described the feeling of being paddled as, "a sharp searing pain." He said he had to hold Jackson's head and help him up from the pain on at least one occasion. Jackson did not complete the initiation, Chambers said. Jackson has not pressed charges against any Phi Beta Sigma members.
A day after the beating on July 10, 2003, Chambers testified he had trouble urinating and his backside was purple with bruises. He went to the hospital where "he was admitted to the emergency room in full kidney failure," Assistant District Attorney Kimberley Nielson said. Chambers was put on dialysis several times, suffered temporary blindness and two seizures during his hospital stay.
Moreau's attorney, Michael Connolly,
said his client did not participate in any of the underground initiation activities,
if there were any, adding that Moreau has 10 to 15 witness that put him at other
locations during the evenings in question. He said all three defendants
are clean-cut college graduates with bright futures. "It's very serious
stuff," Connolly said. Both Connolly and Lowsy pointed out that Chambers
changed his story from the initial account of a mugging he gave when admitted
to the hospital. The defense is expected to present its case in the next few
weeks.
Under cross-examination by Lowsy,
Chambers admitted that he was free to leave, but that he was under social pressure
to tough it out. The Phi Beta Sigma charter with St. John's University was suspended
for four years after this incident came to light, according to Jody
Fisher, spokesman for the university. Currently there is no Phi Beta Sigma chapter
at the university.
He emphasized that the three defendants in the case were not St. John's students at the time of the alleged beatings. Two had graduated and the other was not registered, he said. Connolly and Lowsy both mentioned that St. John's likely feared being sued.
Other instances of severe hazing have been attached to the Phi Beta Sigma fraternity in the past few years. All six members of the Phi Beta Sigma chapter at Southern Illinois University were implicated in an initiation ritual in which a pledge was paddled so badly his kidney was ruptured, an injury very similar to that of Chambers. In October 2003, the University of Texas at Arlington's chapter of Phi Beta Sigma was suspended over allegations of hazing.
Regional officers of Phi Beta Sigma could not be reached for comment.
