Four Chi Phi brothers charged with abduction last September were sentenced Thursday to four days in jail after pleading guilty to disorderly conduct.
Second-year College students Jordan Davis, Joseph Uzcategui, Chase Whitlow and Gabriel Rust-Tierney kidnapped an older fraternity brother and left him in Crozet last April, when they were then-pledges of Chi Phi fraternity. The four brothers pled guilty after charges were dropped from felony abduction to disorderly conduct, Deputy Commonwealth’s Attorney Claude Worrell said.
Disorderly conduct is a class 1 misdemeanor punishable by 90 days in jail. Worrell said the case’s judge suspended 86 days of the sentence for what defense attorney Bud Treakle called a “fraternity prank” that was taken more seriously than it should have been.
“The police investigated it as a serious crime,” Treakle said, explaining that because the incident was reported as an abduction, law enforcement officials opened an investigation of the case. “The actual facts were that it was something similar to hazing.”
Worrell said concerned citizens viewed the incident as a serious crime and filed a police report.
“Part of what made this so particularly important from our perspectives is [that] citizens saw this happen ... witnesses to the event saw it, went after the car that did this ... went looking for them to record their license plate,” Worrell said. “It wasn’t that the victim in the case made a report. Citizens made a report because they saw something that was shocking to them [and] they felt something needed to be done.”
Worrell added that the victim was not a willing participant.
“That person did not want to be abducted; it’s certainly something that he didn’t want to have happen,” Worrell said. “It’s important to recall that people have a right to be left alone and not dragged someplace they don’t want to be.”
Treakle, though, said he interpreted the four brothers’ actions differently.
“My own personal feeling is that it was a fraternity prank,” Treakle said. “If the alleged victim had been honest with the police from the beginning, it would not have gone this far.”
Following the incident, the University’s Inter Fraternity Council Judiciary Committee investigated Chi Phi. Adam Parsell, IFC vice president for judiciary, said the case already has been handled.
“The case has already been adjudicated within the IFCJC,” Parsell said. “As of right now, they [Chi Phi] are still a member of the IFC.”
Parsell did not say if any sanctions were imposed on the fraternity but said the IFC strictly forbids hazing.
“With respect to hazing, we defer to the state and University regulations as stated in our bylaws,” Parsell said.
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