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Southern U. Man's Story: Internal Bleeding and Greeks' Broken Promises

By Shawn Chollette
Black College Wire

Trying to join Omega Psi Phi at Southern University cost Donald Rutledge a job, a chance to graduate this spring, and a best friend, Rutledge says.

Photo credit: Michael Grant/Grambling State University Donald Rutledge told police that after being beaten for two hours, the Omegas told him and other initiates to find their own way home.

Moreover, the 24-year-old senior medical technology major said he was beaten at two unauthorized pledge sessions, and later went to the hospital coughing up blood. Rutledge suffered internal bleeding, and his injuries forced him to withdraw from school and lose his job, he said.

Rutledge’s tale involves broken promises and an alleged hush-money deal.

Five fraternity members have been arrested and charged with hazing, which has led Southern administrators to suspend the fraternity's Beta Sigma chapter for three years and prompted an investigation by the Baton Rouge, La., district attorney’s office.

Chapter spokesman Deion Dorsett, whom Rutledge said was once his best friend, maintains that his chapter is innocent of any wrongdoing.

“I’ve always wanted to be an Omega,” Rutledge said. He had talked about joining the fraternity even before he made it to Southern. In an interview with Black College Wire, Rutledge said he finally got a chance to realize that dream when he received a call on Jan. 25 informing him that he had been selected to “pledge” Omega.

The university’s sanctioned period for recruiting new members had not begun, so the invitation Rutledge received violated university rules. Nevertheless, he went.

“I got a call from [chapter members] telling me to meet up with them at a church in Zachary,” Rutledge said. “When I got there, I was blindfolded and then they [chapter members] put me in a car, “and we drove for a while.”

Rutledge said that when the car stopped, he was taken out and led by hand some distance.

“When they took off the blindfolds, it was me and about 14 or 15 other guys standing in a line out in the middle of nowhere. All I could see were trees, grass and about 30 Omegas.”

And according to Rutledge, that is when the beating bgan.

Initiates “were being punched, kicked, body slammed -- they even hit us with 2 x 4s,” Rutledge said.

He said that after being beaten for approximately two hours, the Omegas told him and other initiates to find their own way home, got in their cars and left.

“I made it home and my whole body was in pain,” Rutledge said.

Two days later, on Jan. 27, Rutledge said he received another call from chapter members instructing him to meet them at a hotel in Port Allen, La.

“This time, they wanted us to meet at a Super 8 Motel” to learn some fraternity information, Rutledge said. “At first, everything was fine. We were learning information and being quizzed on it, and then one of the line brothers messed up and the beating started all over again.”

“When I got home that night, all I could do was lay there,” said Rutledge, who lives on campus. “When I finally got up to go to the bathroom, I started coughing up blood.”

Rutledge went to Our Lady of the Lake Hospital in downtown Baton Rouge, where doctors diagnosed him with internal bleeding.

“The doctors had to stick tubes down my throat to suck the blood out of my lungs, and one of them said it was good thing I came in when I did, because I could have been dead.”

After his release from the hospital, Rutledge reported the beatings to campus and city law enforcement agencies.

“Five subjects in connection with the incident, all members of Omega Psi Phi fraternity, were arrested for hazing, which is a misdemeanor offense,” said Sheriff’s Detective Kevin Cyrus. “We submitted warrants, and all subjects turned themselves in and were charged with misdemeanor summons.”

According to sheriff’s department records, arrested were:

• Deion Dorsett, the Southern University chapter’s baselius and spokesman.

• Delano Mitchell, a Southern University student who was a cast member in Black Entertainment Television’s reality show “College Hill.”

• Gregory Porter of Baton Rouge, a Southern alumnus.

• Terry Davis. No further information available.

• Dontrell Hubbert. No further information available.

Undergraduate fraternity members involved in the case have been urged by chapter advisers not to comment to the news media. Porter responded to questions from Black College Wire, saying he did not know Rutledge, “except for name wise.”

Porter was a member of the Omegas’ campus-based Beta Sigma chapter until he graduated. “I don’t know how or why he is using my name in reference to the incident, but I have lawyers working on my behalf to stop him from doing so.”

Undergraduate chapter members could not be reached for comment for this article, but in mid-February, their spokesman told The Southern Digest, the campus newspaper at Southern, that members of his chapter were not responsible.

“I in no way deny that this man was hazed -- the pictures of his bruises prove that,” Dorsett was quoted as saying in an article by editor Janene Tate. “However, it was not my chapter that did it.”

Dorsett also pointed out to the Digest that Rutledge “could not even identify the five people who he said beat him.” He was referring to testimony Rutledge gave during a Feb. 14 hearing conducted by the university’s Pan-Hellenic Judicial Committee on the hazing allegations.

As part of the university’s investigation, the committee, made up of representatives of Greek groups on campus, hears evidence and makes a recommendation to the director of student life.

During the hearing, Rutledge said, he told the judicial committee that he could not remember exactly who his assailants were, but asked for leniency on behalf of the chapter.

However, when interviewed on March 10 by Black College Wire, Rutledge said that he had not told the Pan-Hellenic Judiciary Committee the truth.

“The reason I lied was because they [the Omegas] made a deal along with Terrell Jackson, a faculty member and Omega,” Rutledge said. “He told Deion [Dorsett] to tell me to drop the charges and they would pay my rent for six months.”

Rutledge said he agreed to the alleged deal.

Jackson, the director of the Smith-Brown Memorial Student Union at Southern University, was reached by telephone at his office on March 18. He said, “I didn’t make any such deal with the young man. The chapter I am a part of is the alumni chapter that advises LSU’s chapter,” referring to Louisiana State University. “I have made a concerted effort to stay away from the Beta Sigma situation. And for that reason, I have not spoken with chapter members, students or even my co-workers about it.”

Jackson said he saw Rutledge on the day of the Pan-Hellenic committee hearing. “He just happened to come into my office. I didn’t even go to the hearing, on purpose. This is the second or third time that I’ve heard that, and I’m a bit uncomfortable with that, tell you the truth.”

Robert Bennett, director of student life, confirmed that Rutledge also told university officials about the alleged deal and the alleged participation by Jackson. Bennett said his office was not investigating that claim.

When it came time to issue a ruling, the Pan-Hellenic Judiciary Committee found the Omegas not guilty of hazing, citing conflicting testimony from Rutledge.

Meanwhile, “I’m thinking that they’re going to come through for me,” Rutledge said, referring to the fraternity members’ alleged offer. “So I dropped the charges by mouth.”

He notified the sheriff’s department that he wanted to drop the charges, Detective Cyrus confirmed, but Rutledge did not pay the fee of $50 per defendant that the department requires to take such action, so the criminal investigation continued.

Two weeks after the hearing, according to Rutledge, he had not heard from fraternity members, and it appeared that they had failed to uphold their end of the bargain.

“I went in there lying about the whole thing to try and save them and they couldn’t even call me?” said Rutledge.

He had gone along up until then, he said, because he trusted Dorsett, whom he considered a friend. But at that point, he sought legal help and decided to cooperate with authorities.

“This is not about the money; this is about taking care of what’s important to me. I had to withdraw from school because I missed so many days,” said Rutledge, who was supposed to graduate this May.

“On top of that, I lost my job at the airport and I have a family -- my girl is seven months pregnant,” he said. Rutledge, who worked in maintenance on private planes, said he missed too many days of work while recovering from his injuries.

On campus, meanwhile, Southern's director of student life was reviewing the evidence, including police reports, the victim’s testimony and police photographs of the victim’s injuries. On Feb. 16, Robert Bennett overruled the judicial committee and suspended the Omega chapter for three years.

Bennett said the evidence was stacked against the Beta Sigma chapter from the beginning.

“The raw meat that was showing in [the] pictures,” Bennett said, referring to open flesh wounds on Rutledge’s buttocks, was enough for him to reject the Pan-Hellenic committee’s not-guilty verdict.

“Since taking this position, I’ve had to call parents three times to tell them that their son or daughter was dead, and that is not an easy thing to do,” said Bennett, who has been director of student life for seven years.

“So when students do anything to jeopardize the lives of other students on or off campus, I’m going to do something about it.”

During the three-year suspension, “the Beta Sigma chapter cannot wear letters on or off campus [nor] have any functions in the name of Omega Psi Phi,” Bennett said. “If an individual is caught wearing any, he is subject to expulsion from the university.”

The chapter appealed Bennett’s decision, but university officials rejected its case.

“The appeal was denied based on the fact that there was no new evidence in the case and the overwhelming evidence supplied by the hospital and law agencies and statements made to those agencies by the accuser,” Russell Frazier, special assistant to the vice chancellor for student affairs, said.

“There will be no further disciplinary action against the chapter or its members, other than the punishment set by the office of student life, which would be the three-year suspension,” Frazier said.

Melvin Robinson, Southern University’s intramural sports director and, for the past decade, adviser to the Beta Sigma chapter, said events “are very unfortunate,” but “with the evidence provided, I have no recourse but to support the decision.”

Robinson said the chapter will not file any more appeals. He advised chapter members not to talk about the case because it is in the criminal justice system.

According to Detective Cyrus, the case has been turned over to the West Baton Rouge District Attorney’s Office.

“The next step is assigning court dates, and at that time they’ll have the option of pleading guilty or not guilty, and they’ll have their case tried at that time,” Cyrus said.

Ken Fabré, assistant district attorney for the West Baton Rouge Parish, said his office is reviewing the case.

“There seems to be significant evidence that leads me to believe that an act was committed. And based on the reports, there are quite a few individuals involved,” said Fabré.

He said his office had not yet set an arraignment date.

“These types of situations involve intimidation -- sometimes it’s hard to get witnesses to come forward,” Fabré said. “But if there is sufficient evidence to prove the case, those involved will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”

If convicted of hazing, individuals face a possible fine of up to $100, possible jail time of up to 30 days and possible expulsion from Southern University, according to Louisiana statutes.

Shawn Chollette is a student at Louisiana Tech University.

Posted March 24, 2005