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Woman sues Sigma Chi
Past, present cases may offer insight into current suit
KRIS UGARRIZA/Herald file photo
Sigma Chi’s Madison chapter is now the subject of a recent lawsuit regarding a student’s alleged rape.
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Also by Signe Brewster:
- Students commemorate Sept. 11 (September 11, 2009)
- Dorm resident commits suicide (September 9, 2009)
- SAFEwalk worker assaulted while escorting student home (September 4, 2009)
- Woman sues Sigma Chi (September 1, 2009)
- Sigma Chi faces reduced sanctions (August 31, 2009)
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As the Milwaukee County Circuit Court awaits a response to the lawsuit filed earlier this summer relating to the alleged rape at the University of Wisconsin Sigma Chi house last fall, ongoing and past cases may provide clues for future proceedings of the suit.
The civil lawsuit was filed by Milwaukee attorney Robert Elliot July 17 on behalf of a UW student who first told The Badger Herald in February she had been drugged and raped multiple times at the Sigma Chi house in the early morning of Oct. 5, 2008.
The suit names the UW chapter of Sigma Chi, its national office and its insurer as defendants in the case, stating the local chapter neglected to maintain a safe place for guests, leading to the woman’s injuries.
The suit also says Sigma Chi national headquarters did not maintain control over individual chapters, even after more than a dozen criminal complaints were made against chapters nationwide since 1987.
The woman, who is identified as “Jane Doe” in the suit, is seeking punitive damages as well as compensatory damages from each of the defendants, according to the suit.
Peer cases are progressing
Sigma Chi chapters at University of Nebraska-Lincoln and University of Georgia are currently involved in court proceedings. While according to UW Law professor Shubha Ghosh cases like these could not be used as precedence for the Milwaukee suit, they could be used to establish legal facts to document a pattern of negligence by the national fraternity.
The University of Georgia chapter is currently facing two lawsuits stemming from events in the early morning of Sept. 27, 2008, when a woman suffered extensive injuries from a fall.
Like in the Milwaukee case, the woman has since sued for compensatory and punitive damages. Both cases partially rest on premises liability, which works to establish a legal obligation for the houses to be safe for guests.
The Milwaukee suit says under Wisconsin statute, the UW Sigma Chi house should be classified as a public residence, making it responsible for its guests. While it is unknown if the alleged rape at the UW chapter was performed by Sigma Chi members, under the statute the house would still be responsible for the woman’s safety.
The Georgia suit, however, is able to go into further detail to establish negligence by the house, citing the serving of alcoholic drinks to minors and lofted beds without railings, from where the victim fell, as preventable dangers.
Where’s the legal responsibility?
The Milwaukee suit names 14 previous cases against Sigma Chi chapters nationally to show “for a number of years prior to Oct. 4, 2008 [the national organization] has known that it has failed to even minimally discharge the duties it has undertaken to supervise and control the actions of [the UW chapter] and [the insurer] and their members….”
One particular case named involves a New York woman raped at the Sigma Chi chapter of Colgate University in Hamilton, N.Y. in 1987. While Boston Globe archives from the period indicate the three men — none of them Sigma Chi members — indicted on rape charges did not serve jail time, the woman later filed a $5 million civil suit against Colgate and the fraternity in 1989. The Milwaukee suit states the woman was awarded an out-of-court settlement from the two parties.
Like the Milwaukee case, individuals allegedly responsible for the rape were not listed in the suit as the Colgate woman was found unable to properly identify them due to her intoxication at the time of the assault. Instead, the case alleged negligence on behalf of the university and fraternity.
Unlike the Milwaukee case, the Colgate woman was able to say without a doubt the rape took place in the Colgate Sigma Chi house. The UW woman was unconscious throughout the assault and can only say she awoke in the UW Sigma Chi house before discovering she was injured.
UW law professor Peter Carstensen said the woman is now tasked with providing enough evidence that the judge and jury can conclude her injuries occurred while she was present in the house.
He said this will have to be partially based on inferences of who did wrong, and the court will then have to decide what the owner of the house should have done differently.
Next, Carstensen said it is a matter of determining what the fraternity’s responsibility should be and the fact Sigma Chi houses non-members could play a role in that.
Because the fraternity is different from an apartment, Carstensen said it could be argued the building owner was more responsible for checking the background of people on its premises.
“That would point toward creating more legal responsibility and makes it easier for the victim to say, ‘You were negligent with respect to my injury because you didn’t check out your residents, as well as your members,’” Carstensen said. “The counterargument is, ‘Gee, we don’t know who did the harm, it may be someone we were responsible for or someone we were not.’”
An ongoing process in Milwaukee and Madison
As the defendants in the Milwaukee case were given a 45-day period to respond to the lawsuit, their answer is due back this week.
As of last week, Sigma Chi International Fraternity Executive Director Michael Dunn said the national organization was going through an investigative process before responding.
“At this point in time, I know of nothing that the criminal side of the investigation has come up with,” Dunn said “This is a civil suit, so until we get through that process we’re going to work with the university and the criminal organizations there and figure it out.”
The UW chapter of Sigma Chi and its insurer could not be reached for comment.
The woman and Elliot have both stated to the Herald they are not speaking to media on the case.
The University of Georgia suit: 72409frat_suit.pdf
The University of Madison suit: 1197_001.pdf
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As the days go by, the rapists involved become more nervous. The secrets that they are keeping inside are eating them up. “Will my frat brother sell me out to absolve himself?” Knowing the discomfort they no doubt live with is a tiny bit of solace. Here’s to justice prevailing at some point, and the perpetrators being locked up. Who knows, maybe some prison thugs will return the “favor” that they so callously inflicted on Jane Doe.
Or maybe she wasn’t raped at all? This wouldn’t be the first case where a fraternity was the easy choice to blame and make a little cash. I know people who go to UW and who are Sigs at UW and from what I’ve heard this isn’t the first time this same “Jane Doe” has cried rape, last time it wasn’t Sigma Chi.
It’s quite amazing that the BH essentially reprints the same article they released earlier this summer on the first day of classes. It’s clear that the BH is trying to drum up as much attention as possible for this situation.
8:56 - Classy.
I hear that people go to the hospital bleeding from gang rape injuries and have multiple sets of DNA taken all the time.
Sorry about the frat, brah. Maybe now you can learn to read.
Is this a demonstration of prositution? Women goes knowingly to a Frat party where she is pretty much assured there will be alcohol being consumed. She drugs herslf and gets raped. Hmmmmm, maybe Daddy she should have listened to her Daddy about frat houses?
9:52—in the Herald’s defense, I bet most of campus didn’t know about the lawsuit, so having it in the first issue is probably appropriate. And this gives more insight into the case than just a “oh, she’s suing them cause she was raped” article.
i think its fantastic that the badger herald decided to re-print this story they already covered over the summer on the first day of classes. it is certainly still pertinent information everyone should know, and it certainly wasn’t put on the front page, months after it was “front-page-caliber-news,” in order to continue to trash sigma chi. way to go BH- you continue to show your bias despite everyone calling you out on it and i know everyone appreciates it.
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 twisted 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 - isn’t this an indictment of our entire American society? Well, you can do whatever you want to us, but we’re not going to sit here and listen to you badmouth the United States of America. Gentlemen!
Like it or not, this IS news. Until the Greek Community takes a stand and cleans themselves up - actually do all the good things they say they do and crack down on frats that do things like this - we’ll continue to see articles like this all year.
Girls,
If you hang with the frat bros you better watch your drink.
Best to drink only from bottles you opened yourself.
Otherwise, it’s likely to be laced with the date rape drug, GHB - Georgia Home Boy.
Dear Rapists,
If you are reading this, I have only one message for you: I hope for your sake that you are an atheist. Because if you believe that a place called Hell exists……well then, your everyday life must already be Hell on Earth.
In the Badger Herald’s defense, they’re not a legitimate news organization with journalistic integrity. They report what they want, when they want. They do what they can to destroy the Greek system without regard for the lives and reputations of those left in the wake. Keep in mind that in the case at hand as well as the stories printed earlier in the Spring semester that no evidence was presented that anything actually occurred other than the word of the alleged victim. I absolutely do not mean to demonize the alleged victim, but an anonymous person’s story without any corroborating evidence means nothing.
@12:08am. There was evidence. MULTIPLE DNA found in her bruised, and torn vagina. Read the original story a-hole.
sigma chi agreed to a dna test, all live-in’s cleared. weird. the girl is well known in the greek community to be, um, very social with guys. and she keeps this behavior up. so she blacks out, has a lot of sex, not everyone else’s problem.
Where there’s smoke, there’s fire. What a bunch of cowards. I’m sick of people saying, “you hold the entire frat accountable”. um, yes i can, and i do. What a bunch of lowlifes. If any of them are brave (stupid) enough to wear their letters around campus, the only letters I will see are R-A-P-I-S-T……
When a fraternity and a sorority get together for a social, group sex is pretty rare. For example, they will get together and share some ice cream and conversation.
In contrast, the fraternities have some groupies such as little sisters, sweathearts, etc. The social events that combine little sisters and fraternity feature more group sex situations. For example, the little sisters will hold a suprise party in the middle of a weeknight and get liquored up with the fellas. In the event that the young lady has had too much to drink, or drank something laced with a date-rape drug, the young lady is in a serious position of being violated via a fraternity train.
I’ve seen situations where the last guy on the train comes late to the party, but is unable to get an erection. In one instance, the gentleman, a 5th year senior, tasted the “brillow pad” along with bonus fluids of his fraternity brothers.
Naturally, the lesson is to not trust these fraternity brothers or tempt them into doing something like this. Open your own bottle and always watch your drink.
For those who doubt the authenticity of the above, please remember that our fraternity’s handshake involves the two middle fingers clasped in and the two outside fingers in the out position. The knock to enter the ritual area starts with three knocks.
“While it is unknown if the alleged rape at the UW chapter was performed by Sigma Chi members, under the statute the house would still be responsible for the woman’s safety.” Is it just I or did anybody else noticed the verb used in this article to describe the rape- “performed”! Isn’t rape considered a crime? Isn’t the proper verb for a crime “committed”? Or is rape now considered some kind of a performance on this campus? Go figure.
I personally think too many of these girls cry rape. I hate Frats and Sororities with everything in me, but I feel that if this girl was so drunk and “drugged” she is to blame as well. If she was dragged to this party, dragged to the room, and dragged back to her place then yes she was rape, but if she knowingly went to this party then she knew what could potentially happen. In my opinion, the more and more I study criminal law, rape is an overly used word.
When is it ever ok to blame a victim for being raped? Getting blackout drunk is something this woman needs to deal with on her own, whether she needs counseling or to just grow up more and become more responsible for her health and well-being. But to say that she is to blame for a crime committed against her is absolutely incorrect. Whatever happened that night, the people who took advantage of her are completely in the wrong and will hopefully be punished for their heinous act. I would also like to comment that rapes do not only happen in the Greek system. Just as many crimes go unreported in dorms or apartment buildings, but people always seem more quick to judge those in the Greek system. How many people on the Madison campus drink and do drugs? I don’t believe the Greek system accounts for more than 10% of the campus, yet they are the ones with a reputation for being bad people. Sometimes the blame really does need to be given to the ignorant students on campus who never recognize the good in the Greek system, such as money raised for charity, or the ability of a chapter to come together and support its members during times of need.