When honor student Courtney Howard pledged to join a sorority at San Jose State University, she sought the support of close-knit sisters in the school’s small African-American community.

Instead, what she got was ritualized hazing that included a nearly monthlong string of beatings, punching, kicking and paddling, according to a lawsuit filed in Santa Clara County Superior Court this week — an episode that experts say is far too common among African-American Greek organizations.

Howard, 20, has sued eight students, the Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority and the university, saying it failed to investigate and protect her from retaliation by sorority members after reporting the 2008 incident. She has since withdrawn from SJSU and transferred to the University of Southern California, saying she didn’t feel safe.

Four of the SJSU students — Princess Odom, Monique Hughes, Nicole Remble and Joslyn Beard — have already been convicted of misdemeanor hazing in criminal court, sentenced to 90 days in jail and two years probation.

“There was physical violence,” said Howard’s attorney, Angela Reddock of Los Angeles. Howard is seeking unspecified damages. “Any number of steps could have been taken by the university to change her living situation and provide security, but that did not happen.”

SJSU spokesman Larry Carr would not comment on the lawsuit, but he did say the university has suspended Sigma Gamma Rho until at least 2016 after concluding the chapter had violated anti-hazing regulations.

The 87-year-old sorority was also suspended seven years ago following another hazing incident. Another African-American sorority, Alpha Kappa Alpha, is suspended from SJSU.

“We enforce a very strict no-hazing policy. We do proper investigations and take complaints very seriously,” said Carr. “We want to make sure our students feel that San Jose State is a safe place to be.”

Founded in 1922 in the midst of segregation, Sigma Gamma Rho was created to enhance the quality of college life through public service and leadership development. According to its website, the sorority has 500 chapters with 90,000 members, including U.S. Rep. Corrine Brown, D-Fla.; former U.S. Rep. Corrine Claiborne Boggs, D-La.; and many prominent musicians, actresses and writers.

Pledging is an important ritual for young people seeking to join Greek life. In identical outfits, learning poems and history, students pledge for a number of weeks and those who stick with it “cross over” into membership. Many make lifelong friends and create strong bonds to their new organization. But during the process, there can be a dark side, called “hazing”: physical and emotional challenges that may result in injury, even death. To reduce risk, Greek organizations and universities have shortened the pledge period and banned hazing.

‘Snitches get stitches’

On that late September week in 2008, the sorority hazing resembled a gang initiation rite, according to court documents.

Howard — a B-plus student, athlete and YMCA counselor — said that when she was invited to join the sorority, she was told it did not haze its pledges.

Sorority sisters threatened Howard that “snitches get stitches,” borrowing a gangster phrase, Howard alleges. During one “pledge meeting,” they warned Howard not to drop out, saying she would be “jumped out” with a beating, like being “jumped into” a gang.

In one instance, Howard said she and two other pledges were blindfolded and taken to Odom’s San Jose backyard, where they were sprayed with a hose. In another, they were hit on their hands and knuckles with wooden spoons. Later, they were slammed into walls, hit with a kitchen pot and punched in the stomach.

Howard alleges that the repeated assaults in up to 16 pledge meetings caused welts, large bruises and a knee injury, forcing her to seek medical care. Another pledge, Jade Atkins, was knocked unconscious when she fell and hit her head on a wooden floor — but was simply taken to the shower to awaken, according to the complaint.

Long-term problem

“Hazing has been a long-term problem in African American fraternities and sororities,” said Lawrence C. Ross Jr., author of “The Divine Nine: The History of African American Fraternities and Sororities.”

Similar concerns have been described by University of Louisville professor Ricky L. Jones in his book, “Black Haze: Violence, Sacrifice, and Manhood in Black Greek-letter Fraternities.”

In 1989, Morehouse College sophomore Joel Harris died after suffering numerous blows to the chest and face, a custom known as “thunder and lightening.” The fraternity Alpha Phi Alpha — whose historical roster includes Martin Luther King Jr. and Thurgood Marshall — settled for $500,000.

In 2009, Prairie View University student Donnie Wade died while running on a track at 4 a.m. while pledging Phi Eta Sigma fraternity. In 1994, Michael Davis died from internal bleeding while pledging Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity at Southeast Missouri State University. Pledges Kenitha Saafir and Kristen High drowned during Alpha Kappa Alpha activities in 2002 at Cal State Los Angeles.

“In white organizations, the problem is alcohol. In black, it’s violence,” Ross said.

“Particularly on California campuses, where the number of black students is tiny, fraternities and sororities are extremely attractive,” Ross said. “They tie people together, and they can do great things. Students feel a bond.

“It’s frustrating. Typically, these things happen off campus, because there is not enough money to have an on-campus house. It is really difficult for the schools to enforce. Several people want to have power over everyone else.”

Alcohol problems are easier to control and respond to, he said. “But it’s tougher to monitor inside a house.”

When Howard sought to join Sigma, she “believed they represented the ‘sisterhood’ she sought in a sorority,” said attorney Reddock.

But after the hazing, then being stalked and threatened, “she feared for her life and did not believe she would survive if she returned to the university.”

The University of South Florida chapter of the Omega Psi Phi fraternity has been suspended while detectives investigate allegations of off-campus hazing, university officials said Monday.

Tampa police said the alleged hazing took place at 11:30 p.m. on Aug. 22 and 23 at an address on W Busch Boulevard.

Police received a report about the incident Friday night and detectives have since conducted “numerous interviews,” Tampa police spokeswoman Laura McElroy said.

“We are investigating to determine if a crime occurred,” she said. None of the suspects are current USF students, no arrests have been made and the investigation is expected to take several more days, police said.

No one received medical treatment as the result of the incident, McElroy said. But neither she nor USF spokeswoman Lara Wade would say what the nature of the complaint was.

University students, faculty and staff learned of the investigation late Monday afternoon in an e-mail from USF system president Judy Genshaft. The e-mail did not initially identify the fraternity, which set the campus abuzz.

“That was kind of a shock,” said student body vice president Spencer Montgomery, 22, a senior majoring in communication. “I was sitting at my desk (when the e-mail arrived) and it was like, whoa.”

As soon as administrators learned of the allegations, USF took what Genshaft described as the “severest possible action.” The fraternity chapter in question was suspended and the chapter’s national organization was notified so that it could begin an investigation.

The suspension means that the chapter in question is not recognized on the campus. “They can’t meet, they can’t rent rooms, they can’t operate on this campus,” Wade said.

USF has 40 Greek organizations, only some of which have fraternity or sorority houses on campus.

While the police investigation is pending, USF will suspend any students involved in the incident, and “we will respond to all hazing incidents in the same way,” Genshaft wrote.

“Hazing is illegal,” she said in the e-mail. “It is against university policy, and it is totally unacceptable at USF.”

While Genshaft said USF’s Greek organizations provide rewarding and enriching experiences to students, she added that “unfortunately, this group held a secret off-campus meeting and violated the standards and policies of not only our university, but the rights of our students.”

This is not USF’s first incident of hazing.

In December 2006, the 70-member USF chapter of Lambda Chi Alpha shut down amid allegations of alcohol and hazing violations. The chapter had already been put on probation as a result of previous alcohol violations.

In 1999, Alpha Eta chapter of the Zeta Phi Beta sorority was suspended after pledges complained that they had been beaten with a wooden paddle severely enough to inflict bruises.

Despite ongoing federal court proceedings addressing its actions, the NCUA has moved forward with the liquidation of the $780,000 Kappa Alpha Psi Federal Credit Union.

“Whenever we liquidate a credit union, we are mindful of the responsibility to return funds to members in an expeditious manner,” wrote John McKechnie, NCUA director of public and congressional Affairs, in an e-mail sent after the liquidation. “In this case, as with other liquidations, we were prepared to do that either by transferring the shares to another credit union or paying them directly to the members. Kappa was unwilling to support a share transfer to another institution, and accordingly, NCUA provided the funds directly to the members,” he added.

The agency sent out the checks before the credit union was able to submit its final briefs in the dispute and before Judge Emmet Sullivan made a final ruling. The agency’s priority, McKechnie said, was protecting the members’ money and their assets. “NCUA wanted to make certain that the members received their funds as soon as possible.” McKechnie reiterated. “The liquidation was done in the interest of protecting the members and their assets.”

McKechnie said the agency sent checks totaling $700,047 from 1,472 accounts but that the agency held back two accounts with $44,975 because they were pledged on loans at the CU.

The agency’s move capped a week of legal filings and counter filings as the two sides battled over whether the agency had been right to have issued an order of liquidation against the CU on Aug. 3. The credit union charged in its complaint against the agency that NCUA acted “with total and reckless disregard for the truth” in the liquidation. It also maintained, contrary to the agency’s assertions in the liquidation order, that it had moved its net worth ratio to 3.67% from having been “minimally capitalized.”

Further, KAPFCU argued that the agency surprised the CU’s leadership with the move and that it acted precipitously to liquidate the CU.

But the NCUA countered in its filing that the credit union could not have been surprised by the liquidation because it had been struggling since 2007.

According to the NCUA’s brief and exhibits, the agency sent KAPFCU three nonpublished letters of understanding and agreement since April 2008 before it finally issued its Aug. 3 liquidation order.

In addition, the exhibits showed the agency published one LUA with the CU and sent three letters from its regional director and one preliminary warning letter, all about ongoing problems that KAPFCU never appeared to overcome.

The agency’s April 2007 LUA listed recordkeeping lending practices and revised business plan as sources for concern. “Loan documentation is inadequate,” the agency wrote. “Notes are missing, are not signed, or do not list the collateral. Titles are not obtained which show the credit union as lienholder.”

In response the credit union agreed that it would develop a record keeping process, properly reconcile its statements with the banks and Southwest Corporate where it had accounts, revise its loan policy, obtain training about how to properly evaluate and underwrite a loan, cease granting unsecured loans in excess of $2500.00 and submit a revised business plan.

A second LUA in late August 2008 included the same concerns and carried similar expectations from the CU and carried this paragraph:

“In consideration of Kappa Alpha Psi Federal Credit Union entering into this modified agreement, the undersigned regional director hereby agrees to refrain from recommending any formal administrative action in connection with the specific conditions addressed in this agreement as long as the credit union and its officials make a sustained, effective and good faith effort to comply with all the terms of this agreement, including the required time frames.”

But a Jan. 16 letter from Keith Morton, NCUA’s region IV director, carried this sentence in boldface type: “Your credit union is operating in an unsafe and unsound manner for which substantial, immediate, corrective action must be taken.” The letter then outlined the problems NCUA’s examiners found on an examination of the credit union on Sept. 30, 2008. These included recordkeeping, reconciliation of bank accounts, an out of balance general ledger and lack of training on safe and sound loan underwriting.

The agency’s filing also attacked the credit union’s assertion that it had improved its net worth ratio. The NCUA included an affidavit with its brief from C.W. Phariss, one of its supervisory examiners.

“The credit union’s actual net worth at the time of the filing was actually 1.09%,” Phariss testified in the affidavit. “The credit union’s net worth calculation for June 2010 was inflated by the KAPFCU board’s decision not to appropriately recognize a significant liability of $20,238 for a data processing expense. Due to their decision to disregard common accounting practice and NCUA guidance on accounting for small credit unions by reversing a previously recognized liability, a Call Report correction was required before NCUA could validate the accuracy of the 5300. Contrary to the plaintiffs’ statements, principal examiner Ron Blosch did not validate the June 30, 2010 filing made by KAPFCU officials because he knew the numbers were inaccurate.”

As of press time, the case remains unresolved. Lawyers for the NCUA and KAPFCU have asked Judge Sullivan to reschedule deadlines for their briefs and to postpone when he will hear arguments in their case.

In their joint request, lawyers asked the court to postpone the date by which KAPFCU would have to provide arguments as to why it has the authority to block the credit union’s liquidation and what standard of review the court should use from noon Aug. 16 to noon Aug. 23. The parties asked that the court schedule a hearing on the case between Sept. 15 and 30.

“Significant events have transpired since the Aug. 11 order prompting the parties to seek leave from the court to alter the deadlines,” the lawyers wrote in their joint motion. The motion did not mention that the agency has since moved forward with the liquidation.

The court has ordered all briefs remaining in the case to be filed by Sept. 30 and will hear arguments on the case on Oct. 15.

A South Carolina university has suspended a sorority for five years for a number of hazing incidents.

A spokeswoman for Coastal Carolina University in Conway said Thursday the decision involves Zeta Phi Beta sorority and violations of the university’s hazing policies.

The sorority has been suspended from all activities, recruitment of new members, meetings, community service actions and social events.

University spokeswoman Mona Prufer said the step was taken following an investigation by the school’s office of student conduct.

Office director Travis Overton says a number of hazing violations occurred during the spring semester this year.

A call seeking comment from sorority officials was not immediately returned.

A Cook County judge Thursday morning removed a contempt of court ruling against Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc. and gave the organization until later this month to provide financial records.

The move came after the group sent its top finance staffer — who’d been at the AKA national meeting wrapping up in St. Louis — to its Chicago headquarters Thursday morning to provide some records for the sorority’s past president, 94-year-old Julia Purnell.

Purnell had filed to have access to the group’s financial records after members unsuccessfully sued the sorority and its leadership, including President Barbara A. McKinzie, a former Chicago Housing Authority and Cook County Forest Reserve financial manager. The lawsuit alleged that over her four-year term, McKinzie directed the spending of millions of the sorority’s funds for personal use and pet projects, including a salary and retirement for the traditionally unpaid post and a wax statue in her likeness on display at a Baltimore museum.

“If the organization had given the plaintiff the respect she deserves from the beginning, we wouldn’t have had this bruhaha,” Judge Daniel Riley said on Thursday. “She had legitimate access in light of evidence and her rights were not respected.”

Purnell’s attorney said the documents she was allowed to view briefly Thursday morning were missing details and accounted for only a small portion of sorority funds.

On July 1, Riley agreed to the inspection of records, but at an emergency hearing Monday, lawyer Ruth Major said the sorority refused to provide them upon after several visits to its Stoney Island Avenue headquarters.

On Tuesday, the judge found the group in contempt after a human resources manager had appeared in a hearing without the proper documents.

AKA’s executive director was pulled from the St. Louis meeting, during which the group honored hip-hop mogul Jay-Z and inducted BET co-founder Sheila Johnson as an honorary member, and Wednesday testified she couldn’t access all documents because most of the staff was at the convention and the group was in the process of changing computer systems.

AKA attorneys had argued there was not enough time or staff available to provide the information as the convention approached, and it would disrupt the biennial meeting to pull top officers and staff from the event.

Purnell, the sorority’s oldest living president, had planned to report to the St. Louis gathering, which concludes today and marks the end of McKinzie’s term.

The next meeting is in 2012.

The judge set a hearing for July 27, after sorority leaders return from a post-meeting group trip to Australia.

A judge in Chicago this morning ordered the director of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc. — one of the nation’s most influential black women’s organizations — to retrieve financial records from the group’s Stoney Island headquarters and bring them to court this afternoon.

Cook County Judge Daniel Riley’s order came after the Chicago-based organization’s Deborah Dangerfield appeared in court and told him that most of her staff is in St. Louis, including the people she needs to pull together the records.

Riley was unmoved, noting that this was the second day in a row he had ordered whoever is in charge of the group’s records to appear in court — and the second day that didn’t happen.

“They didn’t bring me the person I asked for twice,” the judge said.

On Tuesday, Riley had found the group in contempt of court for failing to have its records custodian in court, as he had ordered on Monday. Instead, the national sorority sent a human resources manager Tuesday who said she didn’t have the records.

Dangerfield, executive director of the organization since last year, returned to Chicago from St. Louis, where the group is holding its national meeting.

It’s the group’s first meeting since members filed lawsuits alleging improper spending of sorority funds by Barbara A. McKinzie, the former Chicago Housing Authority and Cook County Forest Preserve District financial executive who is AKA’s president, and the directors of the sorority directors. Among the spending they’re questioning: more than $1 million in total compensation to McKinzie for what previously has been any unpaid post.

McKinzie’s four-year term as the group’s president ends this week.

On July 1, Riley ruled that former Julia Purnell — who, at 94, is the 100-year-old organization’s oldest living former president — could inspect the records. Purnell, who sued to see the documents, planned to present what she found during the St. Louis meeting. But her lawyers said the sorority refused access to the records during several visits to the headquarters on Chicago’s South Side.

Sorority attorneys said there wasn’t enough time to compile the information requested and worried about them being disseminated over the Internet.

A former independent contractor for Daniel & Henry Co. in St. Louis pleaded guilty Friday to mail fraud charges in connection with an investment scheme that cost investors more than $1 million.

From 2003 to 2009, Germaine Pang, 60, of St. Louis, convinced family members, friends and fellow members of her sorority Delta Sigma Theta to invest in the non-existent Krupp Fund, which she promised would return good rates of return on investment, prosecutors said.

Pang deposited investors’ money into her own personal bank accounts and lived off the investors’ money, prosecutors said.

To make her scheme appear legitimate, Pang registered the name of “Krupp dba Germaine M. Pang” with the Missouri Secretary of State and opened a bank account in that name, according to the U.S. attorney’s office.

Pang also created fraudulent annual reports that she mailed to investors to lull them into believing that their investments were safe and were growing, according to prosecutors.

Pang faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and fines up to $250,000 when she is sentenced Sept. 15.

Most neighbors told investigators they didn’t see or hear anything when detectives found Nishan Huff shot to death in June 2006 at the Boulder Creek Apartments in Greenville County.

“I hate the anniversary, because it’s another year we don’t know what happened or why it happened,” said Sacha Huff, Nishan’s mother.

She said that four years later, it’s still hard to believe her daughter is gone and someone knows something.

“They’re not feeling the pain that my family feels,” she said. “If it was their child, their sister, or cousin or whatever to them, they would want to know who did it.”

Nishan Huff had just graduated from Francis Marion University as an honor student. She was also a member of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority when someone shot her in the face several times inside her Boulder Creek Apartment.

“It’s not easy,” Sacha Huff said. “This week has been the hardest week of my life.”

In honor of the sorority Huff loved so much, Nishan’s mother and sister, India Huff, gathered blue and white ribbons, the colors of her sorority, for another candlelight vigil on Monday.

“Any day, at any given time, can be the worst day when you think about it,” said India Huff, Nishan’s sister. “I miss her laughter the most. Sometimes she would laugh so hard until she started crying and would turn red in the face.”

However, now she said she and her family are heartbroken.

“We’re four years out and still no one has said anything,” she said.

India Huff and her mother said they hope that maybe the ribbons, candles and jars that they hoped would fill with money to go toward a reward will bring awareness to the crime and help catch a killer.

“Maybe they’ll turn on the TV, maybe they’ll be riding by and say ‘Oh, I remember hearing about that,’ or ‘I overheard so and so saying this,’” said India Huff.

They said they don’t want to mark another anniversary not knowing what happened.

Later, in front of the Boulder Creek Apartment where Nishan Huff was found dead, a small crowd gathered. Family members and friends wore ribbons and held candles during the vigil. Several pastors said prayers, others sang songs and some in the crowd gave words of encouragement to the Huff family. Many in the crowd were very close to Nishan Huff, but others said they didn’t know her at all, but wanted to show their support.

Detectives with the Greenville County Sheriff’s Office are encouraging anyone with information in the case to call Crime Stoppers at 23-CRIME. Callers don’t have to leave their name, only tips. The reward in this case is $5,000.

Three sorority members are asking a circuit court judge to intervene after officials at the University of Tampa suspended them for hazing incidents they say they didn’t commit.

A witness told school officials in March that three officers of the Delta Sigma Theta sorority were putting pledges through hazing rituals, according to the complaint filed Monday in Hills­borough County Circuit Court. Now the three are barred from returning to school until August.

The hazing claims included allegations that the pledges were “yelled at, made to run, do pushups, squats, eat garlic wrapped in Big Red gum and drink hot sauce, hold a match between their fingers while reciting a pledge, had rocks and grass thrown at them and that they were paddled,” the complaint states.

After an initial hearing, school officials suspended the three students on April 5.

Two of the students were set to graduate Saturday, but have not been allowed on campus, in class or to meet with professors since that day, said attorney Joseph Bryant, who is representing the women.

The three students, identified in the court file only by the initials M.B., S.C. and L.P., admitted to officials that the running, pushups and squats took place but denied the rest of the allegations.

After exhausting administrative options, the students, who are all on scholarships, are asking a judge to return them to school and lift the suspension, Bryant said.

An emergency hearing has been set for Friday.

Bryant said it is unusual for a school to punish individuals instead of a sorority or a fraternity as a whole. A fourth member of the sorority was not charged in connection with the hazings, the complaint said.

According to the court paper, the allegations were not proved and no pledge named the sorority sisters individually.

A spokesman for the University of Tampa, Eric Cardenas, said the school does not usually comment on pending lawsuits and had no comment Tuesday evening.

Source

For many people in college joining a greek organization is part of the university experience.

But that experience turned traumatic for one University of Houston student.

Now his father is suing the Omega Psi Phi fraternity claiming his son was hazed.

The father is not only mad that his son was allegedly physically beaten by local members of the fraternity, but because he is a long-time member of the brotherhood.

“When he called and told me what had happened I was disgusted,” said Lee West Jr. over the telephone.

He doesn’t live in Houston, so 39 News spoke to him over the phone about a lawsuit he, along with his ex-wife and son, Lee West III, filed in Harris County court earlier this week.

“I think our fraternity should be further along than it is and we need to change our way in how we bring people into our organization,” he said.

According to court documents, the younger West had been accepted to join Omega Psi Phi fraternity at the University of Houston last February, along with two other men.

It said they were beaten multiple times, with paddles, broomsticks and a baseball bat, during three intake “meetings” held at the homes of two fraternity members.

The documents say the men were abused so bad one was asked not to return and West, a Junior at the time, suffered swelling and pain to his lower back, legs and buttocks area.

After a visit to the ER, West was diagnosed with a hematoma, which is internal bleeding causing severe bruising.

“None of this type of physical activity should go on in any type of instance in order to become a part of any organization or fraternity,” the elder West said.

In the court documents the local chapter has denied any wrongdoing, even saying there was no record of a pledging process taking place at the time. However, the West’s say membership dues were taken and they have receipts to prove it.

In the meantime, the elder West, who has been a member of the fraternity for 30 years, said he still loves the organization, but thinks this type of hazing has come to be accepted by many – and that’s why he ultimately decided to sue.

“It would have been a pleasure for my son to be a part of my fraternity, but what he went through there’s no way I would want him to be a part,” he said.

The University of Houston said it has zero tolerance for hazing, but beyond that would not comment about the pending lawsuit.

The national Omega Psi Phi fraternity’s attorney said the organization does not condone hazing, but had no further comment on the case.