Two Wisconsin frat leaders charged after 30 pledges found injured in basement

Two leaders of an unrecognised University of Wisconsin-Madison fraternity were arrested on hazing charges after about 30 pledges were found injured in a sweltering basement.

Alpha Epsilon Pi arrests at Madison off-campus house

Two leaders of an underground University of Wisconsin-Madison fraternity have been charged with hazing and disorderly conduct after roughly 30 pledges were discovered shirtless, injured and covered in condiments inside a sweltering off-campus basement, nbcnews.com reports.

The Madison Police Department said it received an anonymous tip on Thursday about an event at an off-campus chapter house. Officers arrived at around 8:20 p.m. on Wednesday to find approximately 30 young men, most of them 18 years old, partially clothed in what police described as a filthy basement.

The pledges were "covered in food, condiments, and other liquids" and showed "visible injuries consistent with being physically assaulted," according to police. The thermostat inside had been set to 81 degrees Fahrenheit, making the space hot and humid.

Brayden Klein and Samuel Vane, both 20, were charged with hazing and disorderly conduct. Each posted $400 bail around 1 a.m. Thursday and was released from the Dane County Jail. It was not immediately clear when the two are required to appear in court. Madison police said the investigation is continuing.

Alpha Epsilon Pi was stripped of its recognised status at the university in 2015, but the national organisation continued to recognise the Madison chapter, allowing it to maintain a presence in the local community. The University of Wisconsin-Madison said in a statement that it will investigate students "implicated in the incident."

The national fraternity, which was founded as a Jewish fraternity in 1913, said it is taking the allegations "extremely seriously" and pledged full cooperation with authorities. "Any member found responsible for criminal conduct in this matter will be expelled from AEPi, and we will support prosecution to the fullest extent of the law," the organisation's statement read. "Hazing is a betrayal of everything our fraternity stands for ... Anyone who engages in hazing forfeits the privilege of being an AEPi brother."

Anti-hazing advocates note that underground chapters carry a particular risk precisely because they operate outside university oversight. Since 2000, there have been nearly 130 hazing-related deaths in the United States, averaging five per year, according to HazingInfo.org, a research and advocacy organisation that tracks such incidents.

Source: Google News MT — Crime (en)