Student sues Sigma Pi over accident

  MIKE CHIEN Members of Sigma Pi, whose house is on
Landfair Avenue, face a lawsuit for allegedly allowing a former
pledge to drive drunk.

By Josh Wolf
Daily Bruin Contributor

A UCLA student is bringing a civil suit against members of the
Sigma Pi fraternity for its alleged role in his drunk driving
accident following a party last year.

Fifth-year history student Robert Burgess claims his accident
resulted from members of Sigma Pi forcing him to drink large
volumes of alcohol and then returning his car keys to him while he
was still drunk.

On the morning of Nov. 4, 2000, Burgess said he crashed his 1997
Toyota Camry into a retaining wall and suffered a broken
collarbone, fractured wrist and bleeding in his kidney.

At the hospital, his blood-alcohol-content was measured at .19
percent ““ two and a half times the legal limit, he added.

Daniel Stimpert, Burgess’ attorney, said members of Sigma
Pi are at fault for violating fraternity, university and state laws
that prohibit “hazing” activities.

“We’re going after the people who are responsible
for what happened,” Stimpert said.

The complaint was filed with the Los Angeles Superior Court on
Oct. 4. No trial date has been set. Burgess said he never contacted
police about the incident.

Mike Sporty, the president of Sigma Pi at UCLA and one of the
members named in the case, said neither he nor anyone in the
fraternity would discuss the situation while the investigation is
ongoing.

Jeff Brown, William Elmer and Allen Rowin are members of Sigma
Pi named in the case along with Sporty. Brown and Elmer would not
comment on the case, and Rowin could not be reached for comment
after repeated phone calls to his current residence in Spain.

The Chi Omega sorority is also named in the lawsuit for
allegedly adding to Burgess’ “personal humiliation,
degradation and embarrassment.” The Chi Omega president,
Nicole Walker, said Tuesday she was not aware of the lawsuit and
later said she is not worried about her sorority’s
involvement. No individual from Chi Omega is named in the case.

Burgess, who pledged Sigma Pi in fall 2000 after transferring to
UCLA from Los Angeles Valley College, drove to the fraternity house
for a fraternity event ““ “Big Sis Revelation
Night” ““ the evening before his accident, according to
the lawsuit. There, he was given three options: drink alcohol,
drink a non-alcoholic beverage concocted by members of the
fraternity or find another fraternity to pledge.

The suit said that members promised to house him for the night
if he chose to drink.

After choosing to drink alcohol, Sporty took Burgess’ car
keys from him, according to the suit.

Then members of the fraternity allegedly blindfolded him and led
him around the house, urging him to drink in each room, the suit
claims. At one point, while blind-folded, people allegedly held his
arms down and poured alcohol in his mouth, Burgess said.

The suit also stated that members of Chi Omega grabbed Burgess
and wrote on his body in permanent marker without his consent.

Burgess said his last memory of the evening involves lying on a
bed, drunk, with Elmer assigned to watch over him.

“I sat down on the bed, and that’s the last thing I
remember. I woke up and was being pushed in a gurney in the Medical
Center,” Burgess said.

According to the suit, Burgess arose at some point in the
evening, was handed his car keys by members of Sigma Pi and
permitted to drive home.

Mark Briscoe, executive director of the Sigma Pi International
Office, said the facts of the case are still unknown.

“We’re currently investigating what the facts
are,” Briscoe said.

Briscoe added that if the UCLA chapter broke any state laws, it
had also violated the international organization’s policies.
The organization would then bring sanctions against the individual
chapter.

Stimpert said both parties want to meet before taking further
actions.