Sigma Nu pres. goes to court for frat fight
The president of Sigma Nu fraternity pleaded not guilty in a court hearing Tuesday for a disorderly house citation he received when a fight broke out at his house the night of Oct. 26.
Because of his plea, Scotty Bills will have to go back to court next Thursday for a pre-trial.
Sean O’Keefe, a Weber State University student and the only person arrested that night, has a court date set for next week.
Lt. Dave Tarbet from the Logan City Police Department said, “Sean was trying to instigate something and was asked to stop and refused, therefore was arrested.”
Bills said, “I just want people to know that it wasn’t members of our house who started anything.”
At about 2:45 a.m., when all six security guards had left the party and the music shut off, the incident occurred, he said.
Many people may think some of the Utah State University football players caused the commotion.
Tarbet said, “I suspect there were some football players there, but they weren’t the cause.”
Mike Strauss, Athletic Media Relations director, said, “Coach is aware of it. He has addressed the situation, and the players involved have been punished.”
Strauss would not comment on the punishment given to the players but said, “It was just bad decisions on our players’ part. It was a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
Tarbet said he didn’t know if they really got to the bottom of how it started. All he knows is several racial remarks were made.
Bills said as the fight began, fraternity members called the police to assist in clearing people out of the party.
Tiffany Evans, director of Student Activities, said, “I am pleased that they [fraternity] called the police.”
Evans said she received a call early Sunday morning from the police and headed up to the fraternity house to see what was going on.
“They had too many people there as a result of the HOWL,” she said.
The night carried with it almost 6,500 people in the Taggart Student Center, 1,000 people in the Logan LDS Institute and 300 people at the Sigma Nu party.
Evans has reviewed the report and concluded there was no violation on the fraternity house.
“Sigma Nu fraternity handled the incident as best as could be expected,” Evans said. “I have an expectation that they will evaluate the event. We have asked them whether or not they should hold this party on the night of the HOWL in the years to come.”
Evans said this year at the HOWL there were 6,426 students. Fifty-four percent were USU Students and the other 46 percent were non-USU students.
That is a lot of non-USU students, she said.
Evans said she feels things might be under better control if all non-USU students were accounted for by a USU student in the future.
“What we want to know is what do the students at Utah State University want the HOWL to be,” Evans said. “We just want to do the best thing for the students.”
If things are getting out of hand with non-USU students, then maybe only USU students should be permitted to buy tickets, she said.
“We would like any suggestions and feedback. We would be happy to hear back from the students,” Evans said.
Evans can be contacted at tiffanye@cc.usu.edu or 797-2911. Or, students with suggestions can contact their ASUSU officers.
-stacipete@cc.usu.edu, lindseyp@cc.usu.edu