A Somerville District Court granted the president of the Theta Delta Chi fraternity (123), Morgan Carney, a one-year continuance on two counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor. Carney, who was charged after underage students were served alcohol at a 123 semiformal on Sept. 30, is the second fraternity president to be held legally responsible for activities that took place in a fraternity house.
The court decision stipulates that the charges will be erased if Carney commits no similar offence within the next year. The case was meant to serve as a general warning against unregulated parties, and could only haunt Carney if he is personally accused of another violation for legal violations at a future party.
"This case was filed against Morgan, but it doesn't mean that if 123 has another violation that it will affect him," Tufts University Police Department (TUPD) Captain Mark Keith said.
The hearing's result was similar to the resolution of a case involving Sigma Phi Epsilon (Sig Ep) President Eric Feigenbaum's and brother Chris Albert last month. The two were brought to court on the same charges Carney faced and were told that the incident would be erased from their records if they stay out of court for a year.
Both Keith and the fraternity presidents say that their run-ins with the law have changed the way parties are held at Tufts. Keith said that the fraternities have taken more control of their parties in recent months and that the TUPD has not had to break up many parties because of excessive noise, activity, or presence of alcohol.
"Things seem to subside anyway after the first few weeks of school. This is normal," he said.
Because of liability issues concerning what occurs at parties on campus, administrators and students are working on a plan to station detail officers at fraternity parties next semester. The proposal would arrange for three detail officers each weekend night to work at the door of fraternity parties and ensure that they remain under control.
"I think [the court case] will ultimately lead to a unified way of holding parties on campus - the only kind of middle ground with the fraternities and the administration, " Carney said.
There has not been a party at the 123 house since these charges were filed, and Carney said the case is one explanation.
The charges against Carney stem from an incident that occurred late last September. The TUPD entered the 123 house on the night of Sept. 30 after receiving three requests for medical assists in a ten- minute period from students who said they had been drinking there. Two of those medial requests resulted in hospitalization. A male student was found to have a blood alcohol content (BAC) of .366, while a female student had a BAC of .30.
"Both are very high levels, and so this could have been very dangerous," Keith said. "Drinking and serving people to that alcohol level is not responsible drinking - that's what we want to try to prevent."
Although the charges against Carney and the members of Sig Ep were identical, the details of the cases differed significantly.
"There was no bartender, no one we could directly accuse, and so we felt that Carney was legally responsible for the actions of the house," Keith said. "No one was actually being served alcohol in our presence; the brothers claimed that they had already run out of beer. With Sig Ep, however, I actually viewed a brother serving the alcohol, and so both him and the president of the fraternity were charged."
Carney admitted that TUPD's decision was necessary. "Since there wasn't actually a bartender to blame, there was no choice but to bring me to court," he said.
While underage drinking at fraternity parties is not a new issue, this is the first time the University's Department of Public Safety chose to seek legal action through the court system. Actions are still pending against the 123 fraternity with the Dean of Students office.
