Posted on 12/17/2005 7:46:22 AM PST by Diana in Wisconsin
Members of a UW-Madison fraternity face more than $94,000 in fines after police busted a Halloween party at their house.
Police gave citations this week to 11 Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity members for the Oct. 28 party, where fire inspectors counted more than 600 people in a house that has a capacity of 99.
The university opened an investigation on Friday that could lead to sanctions against the fraternity and the people involved, Interim Dean of Students Lori Berquam said.
The costume party's 11 hosts face fines of more than $8,000 apiece for 266 violations, most for illegally running a tavern and serving underage drinkers, Officer Carrie Hemming said.
Police believe it is the biggest fine for a house party in Madison, where there has been a struggle for years to combat drinking parties that police say lead to drunken driving, sexual assaults and property damage.
Those who attended the party drained more than 110 1.7 liter bottles of vodka and rum (about 50 gallons) and 1,650 cans of beer (about 70 cases) by 10:30 p.m., according to police reports released Friday. Some had been charged $15 to get in and bartenders were serving "anything you wanted," a 19-year-old student told police, according to the reports.
Police broke up the party at the four-story house but did not issue tickets until this week because of a backlog from the annual Halloween celebration, which attracts tens of thousands of people to Madison.
"This was the largest party that we came across," Police Lt. Carl Gloede said. "Besides the illegal alcohol sales and the underage issues, the fire marshal had quite a bit of concern for the safety of the people there. The fraternity house wasn't built to be a venue for that type of party."
A record 400 officers patrolled this year's Halloween celebration, which ended when they used pepper spray on a group of people. In all, police ticketed 15 house parties more than $173,000 over the weekend, Hemming said. But the department said last week it cost twice that much to staff the event.
City leaders increased party fines last year to discourage unruly behavior connected to Halloween. Several fraternities and students this year canceled or scaled back parties after police warned they would strictly enforce the rules.
Sigma Alpha Epsilon invited more than 1,000 people to the party, according to a guest list released by police Friday.
"It was completely full. You could barely walk," said Ashley Caputo, 18, a UW-Madison freshman who dressed as Alice in Wonderland but left after losing most of her friends in the crowd. "It was intense."
Local members of the fraternity did not return phone calls or e-mail messages Friday. But Max Klupchak, the group's president last year, said the party was just as big in previous years.
"It was definitely a witch hunt," he said. "If they wanted to, they could bust somebody every night of the week."
Assistant City Attorney Marci Paulsen, who is prosecuting the case, said the $94,000 in fines is appropriate "when you consider they had six times the capacity they were supposed to have in that house and at least 11 underage people identified."
The city has allowed other students who have faced large drinking fines to set up long- term payment plans or pay a fraction of the fine as long as they are not caught again.
Brandon Weghorst, a spokesman for the national fraternity, said it would open an investigation once police turn over all the reports.
Stupid frat. However, the POLICE can't fine anyone. Only the court can do that. Bad headline.
That was standard operating procedure at my fraternity, Delta Chi.....
"That was standard operating procedure at my fraternity, Delta Chi...."
Yes, I'm sure it was.
"Ladies and gentlemen, I'll be brief. The issue here is not whether we broke a few rules, or took a few liberties with our female party guests; we did. But you can't hold a whole fraternity responsible for the behavior of a few sick, perverted individuals. For if you do, then shouldn't we blame the whole fraternity system? And if the whole fraternity system is guilty, then isn't this an indictment of our educational institutions in general? I put it to you, Greg! Isn't this an indictment of our entire American society? Well, you can do what you want to us, but we're not going to sit here and listen to you bad-mouth the United States of America! Gentlemen!"
--Eric "Otter" Stratton
"It was definitely a witch hunt," he said. "If they wanted to, they could bust somebody every night of the week."
A witch hunt on Halloween? Not surprising they found some!
College kids drinking to excess. Imagine that!
LOL!
I know ... I know ... it's advice from Joe Kennedy to Teddy.
What do I win???
Jack
And why was I not invited to this party? MMMM....
PS, when I was college age, I would have absolutely been at that party!!!
My sons frat has an annual party (beach party) that draws around 1500 people....they let the cops know and they also hire there own security...sounds fun to me if I were that age....
Selective enforcement. I wonder about the number of people in the house, though. I wonder what the most we ever had in our house re load rating - I can remember wall to wall people.
averages out to 3 beers and 0.3 liters of vodka per person.
Not that bad, but then it was only 10:30
Now that's a Halloween party!
The worst part about all this is not the drinking.... but it's the overcrowding. THAT is the most dangerous aspect to all this, and couple that with all the out-of-control drunks?!!!!!!!!
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