Boston Fraternity Tied Hazing
Police say the men, all BU students, were covered with flour, coffee grounds, honey and other food and some had red welts on their skin. All refused medical treatment.
BU has punished a sorority after three pledges were so drunk they needed medical treatment. Two members of the school’s hockey team were accused of sexually assaulting women, and the independent student newspaper came under fire for a distasteful April’s Fool’s edition.
Five Boston University students were found bound and covered in condiments, their heads partially shaved, in the basement of a frat house Monday in Boston.
Boston police arrived at the Alpha Epsilon Pi home to investigate a report of a party, but when the partygoers fled, cops found five adult men in their underwear with their hands taped behind their backs, kneeling on the basement floor. The men were covered in chili sauce, coffee grounds, honey, mustard, hot sauce, flour, and empty sardine cans, according to a police report.
Police are investigating other Boston University students, all of whom are members of the fraternity, in connection with the incident. Some of the suspects were questioned at the home where the men were found bound, after they hid in upstairs bedrooms and closets when police broke up the party.
Eleven members of the fraternity, which is unsanctioned by the university, live in the home where the men were found.Police said they found the students "shivering" with "horrified fearful looks on their faces." The men did not respond when police asked if they were okay, though, according to the police report, one "victim looked right at Officer with tears coming down his face shook his head from right to left indicating no."
They were covered with red welts and condiments, and parts of their heads had been shaved, according to police.
Officers notified the Boston University police, who arrived at the scene to help interview victims and suspects, the report said. None of the suspects interviewed would explain why the men were bound in the basement covered in the condiments.
The police also found a keg of beer and multiple cups of beer flecked with sardines.
A spokesman for Boston University told ABC News affiliate WCVB that Alpha Epsilon Pi is not a sanctioned fraternity and the university does not approve of the alleged behavior.
"Boston University finds these allegations troubling and takes them very seriously," said spokesman Colin Riley.
The university opened its own investigation into the matter, and is looking into the alleged behavior of nine students involved, according to WCVB.
"If we find it's a violation of our code of student responsibilities, then their status as a student at the university could be in jeopardy," Boston University Dean of Students Ken Elmore told the station.
Boston police told ABC News their investigation is ongoing.
Nine Boston University students believed to be members of the fraternity Alpha Epsilon Pi are under investigation after the Boston Police Department discovered five apparent pledges covered in red welts, missing chunks of hair where their heads had been shaved, and "dressed only in their underwear standing in the [fraternity house's] basement, covered with various food ingredients and with their hands bound together."
This news is unfortunate, but not exactly shocking, as the same fraternity was involved in another alleged hazing last month that sent a group of heavily intoxicated girls in the sorority Sigma Delta Tau to the hospital.
Coincidentally, Dean of Students Kenneth Elmore announced yesterday — only hours before police found the AEPi pledges with their pants down — that, as a result of the first hazing, some members of AEPi would be sanctioned and perhaps suspended.
Why did the administration, which immediately suspended SDT after the first incident, wait longer to take action against AEPi? Unlike SDT, AEPi isn't recognized by Boston University, which means it couldn't have been suspended — but the administration could have publicly announced their involvement.
Earlier this year, Boston University officials waited until a second ice hockey team member was charged with sexual assault before launching an internal investigation, and it's clear by the way they're reacting to the hazing that they don't want to develop a reputation for acting too little, too late. BU spokesperson Colin Riley told the Boston Globe today that the students involved will definitely face the university's judicial board.
"Just because it happened off campus, it doesn't mean they'll go unpunished,'' Riley said. "There are alleged victims here who we care about, and hazing is illegal here in Massachusetts.'' It's promising that the administration is responding to this recent incident — the latest of many at Boston University — with harsh words instead of silence.